Trip Report Our first WDW trip, not so scary in Disney but so scary in Universal

Hi all,

a day later than promised, but here is our TR from out October 2014 trip to WDW and Universal. It will be a long TR I guess, we have tons of pictures! So please be patient, it probably will take quit some time to finish this TR! This week we still have holidays so not that many time to work on this TR, but from next week I will post as many posts as possible during work time

If you are interested in the PTR: here it is

The overall thought of this trip is marvelous, wonderfull, magical, scary, beautifull! I guess a lot of you want to know the comparison with DLP. My first opinion is that although the parks in USA are older than DLP I am sure that the parks in USA are better!! The cast members are more gentle, easier to talk to! The look of the park is cleaner than in DLP, all the buildings are in a much better shape than in DLP. Off course we are in DLP 4/5 times a ytear, so everything feels 'normal' and WDW was a first timer (yeah I was there 25 years ago, but the only thing I remember from that trip are the pictures (sorry not digital). So when you visit WDW for the first time everything looks better than DLP.

The best thing about WDW in comparison to DLP is the magic band system in WDW. It really worked out very good! We also had the Memory Maker, so beside our tons of pictures we also have 100+ memory pics taken by cast members.

So in short words the days:
Friday October 17th: flight, was ok, not that much turbulence
Saturday October 18th: Magic Kingdom, was great, special, magical
Sunday October 19th (daytime): Universal, Island of Adventure, was also great, Harry Potter was marvelous
Sunday October 19th (nighttime): Universal, Universal Studios, Halloween Horror Night, absolute a thrill!
Monday October 20th: Epcot, not really our thing, Test Track was great, The Wine and Food thing was not our thing
Monday October 20th: Downtown Disney, hard to find a parking lot, and a lot of structure going on, some great shops, but overall not really our thing
Tuesday October 21th: Universal Studios, great day!
Wednesday October 22nd: Hollywood Studios, a more that great day, Fantasmic was a more that special end of the day
Wednesday October 22nd: Premium Outlets, not that great, much shops that were not our thing
Thursday October 23rd (daytime): Animal Kingdom, good, not great! Some great rides, for the rest nothing more than a zoo
Thursday October 23rd (nighttime): Magic Kingdom, Not So Scary Halloween, a more than great night!!
Friday October 24th: flight home, was ok, a lot of turbulence

So this was the trip in a nutshell!

Much, much, much more to come!!

p.s. It was the first time, but absolutely not the last!!!!

 

[FlaggNL]

Here we go again with the continuation woth day 2 of our Florida '14 visit! We still are in Universal on the way to Haryy Potter!

And then we were there! The Harry Potter part of Island of adventures! And well have to be honest! We were blown away! That really is by far the greatest part of any park anywehere in the world! In general WDW is by far the greatest park, but the Harry Potter theme is unique in it's kind! We started by looking around, but soon found out that the cue was only 30 minutes

More to come........

 

[FlaggNL]

Like I said the waiting line was just 30 minutes as you can see on the picture! So it was tome to ride the first attraction in Universal!

As you can see above just 30 minutes! So the next couple of picture are from the waiting line. Not that good quality, but almost all pictures in this ride were taken by iphone! The camera was together with our belonings inside a locker. That is one of the greatest things in USA. A lot of rides have free lockers for your personal belongings! In DLP no lockers at all.

More to come......

 

[FlaggNL]

Like I said in an earlier post, the Harry Potter really blew us away! What a marvelous attraction! After the ride we still are in in the Harry Potter part of the park!

Time for a butter beer! We didn't know what to expect! But is tasted wonderfull

Sacha got her own Harry Potter outfit

And of course we got ourself a want!

After the Harry Potter part, what took us more than 2,5 hours to explore it was time to visit the rest of the Universal park. Jurrassic Park was next!

 

[FlaggNL]

That's it for today! I have to sort out the rest of the pictures today and off course some work to do! And maybe explore some other TR's today! 2morrow much more pictures and posts!!

 

[Longers]

I have finally caught up (as its raining outside here in Disney) loving all the photos - that's the problem with doing it live like I am trying to do - my Memory on my IPod will only take so many so I can't share them all!

I agree With you re universal the theming is amazing in both parks now, and I love how they have the Hogwarts express to link them both together.

Looking forward to following along with you and seeing more of your great photos, I love looking at other people's photos anyway. It's great to see what shots other people get. And can't wait to see how big that Minion finally was when you bought one!

 

[HouCuseChickie]

So jealous that you got over to Universal. We had debated about it for our recent trip. One of these days! Well, not the Halloween Horror Nights part. Did that once when I lived in FL...went with some friends who were former Uni employees. Yeah- kind of scarred me for life. LOL Can't wait to ready more!

 

[DisneyMorgan]

Great report so far!! Y'all had a great first day at the MK! Oh I so miss Harry Potter world, I can't wait to get back there! Really excited to read about HHN! I'd like to go to that one day.

Also, I see you will be back at WDW next October? We will be there too! Only 326 days left!

 

[imagination30]

loving your report flag , you have a wonderful fam

 

[FlaggNL]

I have finally caught up (as its raining outside here in Disney) loving all the photos - that's the problem with doing it live like I am trying to do - my Memory on my IPod will only take so many so I can't share them all! I agree With you re universal the theming is amazing in both parks now, and I love how they have the Hogwarts express to link them both together. Looking forward to following along with you and seeing more of your great photos, I love looking at other people's photos anyway. It's great to see what shots other people get. And can't wait to see how big that Minion finally was when you bought one!

Great you caught up, on the other hand that means it's raining so that is not that nice Again thanks for the photo compliment. The thing is we have so much pictures because we braught an external HD and every night I dropped allt the pictures and all our videos (73GB!!) in that disk. So we had a fresh empty camera start every day.

This is the camera with the short lens, we also have a big one. We switch all the time.

The theme in Universal is great, but the thing is that a lot of rides are simulators, so it feels like a lot of the same Harry Potter on the other hand is marvelous. We didn't ride the train, we had no hopper tickets and we refused to pay $40 a person. The next trip we absolutely will have hopper tickets so we can ride the express!

Since we are just with day 2 there so much more to come with so much more pictures! And yeah, Sacha got her Minion, but not as big as I expected before we left to USA

So jealous that you got over to Universal. We had debated about it for our recent trip. One of these days! Well, not the Halloween Horror Nights part. Did that once when I lived in FL...went with some friends who were former Uni employees. Yeah- kind of scarred me for life. LOL Can't wait to ready more!

We also debated before our trip if we should 'do' Universal, but Sacha loves 'the Walking Dead' and saw so many movies on Youtube before we left. So we had to do HHN! And we are glad we did Universal and the HHN. Although it was very crowded and we managed to do only 2 of the Horror Hauses! But like I mentioned a couple of times, the Harry Potter part is so amazing, when you have the opportunity next time --> GO!!

Great report so far!! Y'all had a great first day at the MK! Oh I so miss Harry Potter world, I can't wait to get back there! Really excited to read about HHN! I'd like to go to that one day. Also, I see you will be back at WDW next October? We will be there too! Only 326 days left!

The Harry Potter world (in both parks) is in our opinion the best part of whatever park. We can't wait to go back! But my best guess is that the Avatar theme Disney is building in AK will match the Harry Potter theme! And yeah we will go back to WDW! A long wait, but we already know it will be worth the wait! And hej, you are there even sooner than we do

loving your report flag , you have a wonderful fam

Thanks for the compliment, glad you love it! Much more to come!!

 

[FlaggNL]

Here we go again with the next part of day 2! We are still in Universal, Island of Adventures! Time is passing by as we were getting excited more and more for the HHN!

Jurrassic Park was a great ride! We have no pictures from this ride. Ria was tempting to take pictures and have some videos, but the crew told us to take the camera away. We thought that was strange, but hej the rule is to follow the orders. Well we are glad we did! De didn't told us to put the camera's away without a reason We all got a little wet Not as wet as later in the week, but will come back on that when reporting about AK

Well we all got wet inside Jurrassic Park,l but it wasn't the only ride with some water We didn't do Popey this trip, that will be something for the October '15 trip.... but the next pictures speaks for them self

Sacha then found a Minion! And what kind of one For 2 reasons she didn't got this one $250 and the suitcase ;

When Ria and I were looking for some tees inside the Universal shops we ran into a nice character. He was on his way to go outside but stopped when I asked for a picture And then he caught me and Ria caught the right moment

The we went on our way to find a restaurant for something to eat. But first the Christmas Gringe

And off course Sacha needed to have the next picture with some nice people from a nice series

The it was time to get something to eat! We didn't want to go to BK or something like that. But it was soooo crowded in the restaurants! It seems everybody who got tickets for HHN was in line for food! Then we found out a short line and got ourselves some Chinese food. It was great!! Even more than great!!

Will probably post more later this day! Some pictures of the HHN! We didn't got our camera with is, so only Iphone pictures, but the quality is quite OK!

Have to work now, so hopefully more to come today otherwise 2morrow morning there will be more!

To be continued.............................

 

[FlaggNL]

Ok here we go with the HHN part of our trip! It was a great great night, although on our next visit we won't be doing it again! Why? Because in our opinion it was too crowded and the waiting lines for the houses are too long. When we arrived we instantly went for the Walking Dead house..... 110 mins waiting time. But it was worth the waiting. The house was big, they say the biggest they ever made, and it was scary! The characters were really great in that house! After the Walking Dead we walked around... a lot of houses had more than 180 mins of waiting line. So we walked around and did some rides and later the evening we did the From Dusk Till Down house.

Overall a great night with great experiences, but like I said, too crowded in our opinion!

The pictures (with Iphone) speak for themselve

One post with pictures from HHN left........

 

[FlaggNL]

The final post for today and also the finale post of HHN.

The next couple of post will be Epcot. To be honest one of the parks we not liked that much.. but off course a lot of pictures, only less that other parks... but hej just the 3rd day of the 7 day trip!

Feel free to comment

 

[coachwnh]

Once again enjoying the pictures from your trip report! Looking forward to the rest.

 

[FlaggNL]

Once again enjoying the pictures from your trip report! Looking forward to the rest.

Thanks, we are enjoying writing the TR! Checking the pictures feels like reliving the trip again!

 

[FlaggNL]

Here we are again with the 3rd day of our 7 day trip to Florida. Today it was time for Epcot! From what I remebered from 25 years ago it was a techical and spacy park with not that much attractions. And I remebered it right. In it's way it is a nice park, but if feels like totally out of it's place as a Disney park. We parked the car at MK and took the Monorail to Epcot.

The first part of the day we did walked around, got some Starbucks, did some attractions and then it was time to discover the countries and walk around the lake. We thought...... The wine and food festival was still going on.... but that is not our thing We understand that people like it, but when being in Disney Parks we wanna do different things than eating and drinking. We walked around the like for a short while... the temperature was high that day and not many shades to cover... so we got as far as Rose & Crown where I got myself a Guiness. After that we left..... from the rest of the day we don't have pictures. We went to Downtown Disney. We stayed there for a little while. A lot of construction going on, so we left soon. After that we went to Florida Premium Outlet and that was also not that nice. Feels like normal prices.... so we came back in the villa earlier than expected....... Sacha did some swimming and then off to bed! Next day was day 2 in Universal!

So for now 3 posts with pictures from Epcot.

Not an Epcot ride, but great to see such an advertisement! We will be back later this week for a ride in TOT!

Even when arriving at the gates there are Halloween marks

Time to grab the Monorail to Epcot!

 

[FlaggNL]

Continuation of our day at Epcot!

 

[FlaggNL]

The final part of our pictures of the day in Epcot!

 

[FlaggNL]

As mentioned before we bought ourselves Memorymaker, so we also have some pics from our day in Epcot. So one more post and then off to day 4!

To be continued with day 4, our second day in Universal Studios.........................

 

[Obi]

enjoying your tr so far. Was hoping to see ya at Mk the first day, but didn't happen. Perhaps, if I get some time I might post my Disneymoon tr.

 

[coachwnh]

Now thats enjoying life in Disney!