Trip Report Feeling hot, hot, hot!!

Going to Universal and Disney in August is not for the weak. We had a good time and wisely took mid-day breaks back at the hotel each day.

Heeeeeerrrrreeeeee we goooooooooooo!


Traveling party was me, DH, DD14, and DS12. Since the kids are getting older, this might be our last family trip to Disney so we went all out. Don't @ me for buying G+ or ILLs.

Day 1: Arrival at MCO approx 15 mins early (thanks Southwest!!), grabbed rental and headed for Universal. Our room was not ready yet (approx 10am arrival to hotel) so we dumped our bags at Bell Services and headed to.....

IoA

• Storm Force (all)
• Hulk (DH, DS12)
• Spidey (all)
• Kong (me, DD14, DS12)
• Watched Frog choir approx 10 minutes
• Hippogriff (DH, DD14, DS12)
• Butterbeer break
• Forbidden Journey (all)
• Wand ceremony at Ollivander's -- where DD14 was chosen. Squeeeeeeee!! Purchased her wand that chose her, and also got an interactive wand for DS12.

• Headed back to hotel 3:15ish, rains heading in
• Got into room, they comp'ed us for a requested rollaway
• 6ish dinner in hotel (Jake’s American Bar)
• Back to IoA
  • Spidey (me, DD14, DS12)
  • Forbidden Journey (me, DH, DS12)
  • Forbidden Journey (DS12)

Uni Day 2

• Velocicoaster (DH and DS12)
• B’fast (me and DD14)
• Kong (DH and DS12; they were supposed to wait for us and all of us go together )
• Hippogrif (me, DH, DS12)
• Spell casting in Hogsmeade -- my children are abysmal at spellcasting
• Hogwarts Express (all)
• Gringotts (all)
• Transformers (all)
• Minion Mayhem (me, DD14, DS12)

• 12ish - back to hotel, lunch and rest

• 5pm back to Studios
  • ET (all)
  • Twirl and Hurl (all)
  • Simpsons Ride (all)
  • Simpsons Ride (DS12)
  • Leaky Cauldron for dinner -- DH was not pleased by the lack of Coke products in Leaky Cauldron but made do with a butterbeer
  • Hogwarts Express (all)
  • Poseidon’s Fury (all)

Uni Day 3

• Hagrid’s (DH)
• Seuss Trolley (all)
• Red Fish Blue Fish (DD14 and DS12)
• Cara-Seussical (DD14 and DS12)
• Cat in the Hat (DD14 and DS12)
• Spidey (me, DD14 and DS12)
• Kong (all)
• Back to hotel, collected bags, chilled out
• Drove to Epcot resorts, checked into Swan 3pm ish
  • Comp'd upgrade to balcony room

MK

• Boat to DHS, 4:15
• Snafu!! Dinner ressies Cape May Cafe 5pm
  • Left DHS, boat to Cape May
  • Dinner 5:15-6:30ish
  • 6:40pm back on boat to DHS
• Falcon -- this was not a good night for the family between my forgetting the Cape May Cafe ressie (thank goodness for Google calendar pop-up reminders) and a misleading posted wait time in the app(s) for Falcon. 25 minute standby = 1 hour, and my crew were tired and unhappy. Falcon was the only thing we rode (standby) this night.

Disney day 2
Epcot

• • Remy (standby all, park open)
  • Breakfast - Le Halles; more snafus as the app said this opens at 8, and it really opened at 8:30. Still, I was one of the first ones in once they did open. (DD14 got TWO Belgian waffles from Belgium Food and Wine kiosk for her b'fast)
  • Soarin’ (standby, all)
  • LwtL (standby, all)
  • Nemo (standby, all)
  • Imagination (standby, all)
  • Test Track (G+ booked 7am; all)
  • Guardians (VQ booked 7am; all)
• I think we did lunch back at Swan/Dolphin this day.

MK

• Pirates (standby; all)
• JC (G+ booked 10:30am, return 5:45-6:45pm; all)
• Columbia Harbor House dinner
• Haunted Mansion (G+ booked 3:30pm, return 6pm) -> turned into anytime G+ when HM went down, but we still used for HM 7:20pm after it came back up (all)
• Mine Train (ILL booked 1:30, return 7:35-8:35pm; all)
• Tea Party (standby; me, DD14, DS12)
• Buzz (G+ booked 7:50pm, return 8:20pm; all)
• Speedway (standby; all)
• Speedway (standby; DH, DD14, DS12)
• Space G+ (booked 5:30pm, return 9:05 - DH and DS12)
• TTA (standby; me and DD14)
• Small World (standby; all)

Disney Day 3
Epcot

• Easy morning at the hotel, slept in, light breakfast around 10/10:30am
• Cosmic Rewind booked 7am VQ, return 11:34am-12:34pm (DH and DS12)
• Bailey’s Shake (Ireland) and Mimosa flight (me)
• Teppan Edo lunch 1:10pm

DHS

• Slinky (G+ booked 7am, return 3:40-4:40pm; all)
• Star Tours (standby/walk on; all)
• Star Tours (DD14 and DS12)
• Rise (ILL booked during the day (waited for good return time for our schedule) return 5:15-6:15pm; all)
• Falcon (G+ booked during the day (waited for good return time for our schedule) return 5:40- 6:40pm; all)

• Dinner Backlot Express
• MMRR 7:40-8:40pm (me and DD14, twice)

Disney day 4

• Early morning, hit the bus approx 6:45am and rope dropped AK
• Safaris (standby; all)
• Gorilla Trek (DH, DD14, DS12)
• Breakfast - Starbucks
• FoP (ILL booked 7am return 9:25-10:25am; all)

• Back to hotel 11ish

• 2:30/3pm - me/DD14 eating around the World
  • Belgium (waffle for DD14, Coffee with Godiva liqueur for me)
  • Greece (lamb gyro and white wine for me)
  • Funnel cake (pina colada funnel cake for DD14)
  • Germany (bratwurst on pretzel roll and Pineapple Hefeweizen for me)
• 4pm - DH and DS12 arrived at Epcot and caught up to us
  • Refreshment Outpost -- Watermelon Dole Whips for all
  • 3 Cabs (standby; all)
  • Noodle Station: spicy Vietnamese Pho (DS12)
  • Mexica: Mango Margarita (me)
  • Dinner Le Cellier 5:20pm ressie
  • Rained out the rest of the night - thunder, lightning; Food and Wine kiosks closed up

Disney day 5 (last day)

• Checked out of Swan, drove rental up to TTC
• Ferried over to MK

MK

• Swiss Family Treehouse (DH, DD14, DS12)
• Aladdin Carpets (standby, DD14, DS12)
• BTMRR (standby; all)
• PPF (G+ booked 7am, return 10:50-11:50am; all)
• PhilHarmagic (standby; all)
• Mansion (G+ booked 11am, return 11:50am - 12:50pm; all)
• PVH lunch
• Mermaid (standby; all)
• Buzz (G+ booked 12:45, return 12:55-1:55pm; all)
• Speedway (G+ booked 1:48, return 2:55; DD14 and DS12, twice)
• Auntie Gravity’s/Merchant of Venus ice cream break
• Barnstormer (G+ booked 3pm, return 3:05; all)
• Dumbo (DS12)
• Popcorn break
• Park exit ~4pm

Our flight home was not boarding until 9:30pm, so we kicked around the idea of hitting a 2nd park or heading to Disney Springs for a few more hours. But we were so wiped out we just headed straight to the airport.


It was a wild time, and I think we all (or most of us had fun).