Trip Report 4 Vacations in One (Universal, WDW, Disney Cruise, and Vero Beach)

Good day friends,

Welcome to another trip report from Brifraz (with lots of photo support from @MeffysMom). For the first time in forever, this report is not going to be live one. Those who have followed along on our previous reports know that I usually post trip reports while we are in WDW with some pre-trip, live updates from the world, and then a post-trip wrap up. Well, this time I'm just going to do things the traditional way and post the full report after the trip is complete. Of course, I'm typing this from our room in Old Key West while I wait for the girls to wake up, which makes it slightly 'live' at the moment. But I'm just going to give the general overview of this (rather large) vacation now and then in a couple days get down to the real adventures once I am home, sitting on the deck, with a cold beer in hand. So, here's what I have in store for you in the coming days, so as to whet your trip report appetite!

Prelude - the long and winding road (1000+ miles from Maryland to Florida - NOT all on I95)
Part One - two days at Universal with a surprise bonus
Part Two - 7 night cruise on the Disney Fantasy through the Western Caribbean
Part Three - 2 nights at Disney's Vero Beach Resort
Part Four - 4 nights at WDW, staying (as usual) at Old Key West
Postlude - the shorter and straighter road (900 miles from Florida to Maryland - on I95) and conclusions

So, run to the store and get some popcorn and refreshing beverages, and get ready to get pretty Disney busy starting this weekend with Brifraz!

 

[Zipadeelady]

Great intro! I'm in!

 

[LisaBelle]

Sounds like an amazing trip! Love reading about Disney cruises because I really want to take one some day! We will be at WDW July 14-21 some of which will likely fall around your WDW days. I will keep an eye out for you and the fam!

 

[LeighM]

This sounds like my dream itinerary. Except for the I-95 part LOL. My husband and I did a road trip to FL 3 times but we just had too much bad luck. Once, a flash flood from a thunderstorm that closed 95 in Roanoke Rapids, NC. A 15 mile detour ended up taking close to 3 hours. Then it was ice storm clean up all thru SC - fastest we went on that stretch of 95 was actually 45 mph lol. The last road trip we barely made it thru SC before a noreaster closed 95 bc of flooding. After that, I got a prescription for anxiety meds and got my butt on an airplane LOL. My husband is thankful

 

[brifraz]

Sounds like an amazing trip! Love reading about Disney cruises because I really want to take one some day! We will be at WDW July 14-21 some of which will likely fall around your WDW days. I will keep an eye out for you and the fam!

Sad to say we leave tomorrow!

 

[LisaBelle]

Sad to say we leave tomorrow!

Bummer! Didn’t realize you were already on the final leg of the trip. Hope you had a great time!

 

[Gurt]

Im in I hope you had a great trip, can't wait to read about it.

 

[ScarletBegonias]

I'm in! I'm also in Maryland and we drive to Disney. The drive is a killer!

 

[DisneyAndrew827]

I can't wait to read this. I'm from West Virginia. My wife had never flown before and refused to...that was until we drove to Disney with my parents and she rode in the 3rd row of our SUV. Now she wants to fly everywhere...

 

[brifraz]

Prelude - The Long and Winding Road

For those not familiar with the Brifraz family, we are a couple of high school teachers with a high school student daughter. I teach instrumental music (with a highly competitive marching band) and @MeffysMom teaches English at drama (at a rival high school) and runs half marathons. Our daughter is at a third high school in the area and runs cross country and is in chorus, band, and drama productions. So, getting time for us to head to Disney is almost always at the most crowded times as they are the only times all three of us are free! This trip has been in the works for a couple of years as it involves almost 18 days away from home. All of our school year's ended on June 15th, so after a weekend of getting ready (and then a couple days of me at marching band summer rehearsals) we hit the road on June 20th.

Generally our drive to Disney is a 18 hour love affair with I95 (pretty much a 950 mile straight shot, with a couple short breaks and one longer stop in a rest area and sleeping in the car) but this time was going to be different! Our plan included three unique stops (and a maybe fourth) as we took the roads less travelled - although I81 and I26 are still pretty well travelled, just not by us heading to Disney.

Here we are hitting the road at 6am on June 20th. We started off heading bit west through western Virginia (my old college stomping grounds) and then a little into Tennessee for our first stop. Having gone to college at JMU, I had experience with quite a few cave excursions (Luray Caverns, Endless Caverns, Natural Bridge Caverns) in my past and as a family we had visited a couple of those. Well, Appalachian Caverns in Blountville, TN was our destination. To say it is a bit off the beaten path is an understatement. Only 15 minutes from the Interstate, but along a couple very small and not all that well labelled roads! The caverns were pretty and the tour was very good although I would have preferred a little more of the history and I know our daughter would have preferred a little less of the mud - she did a short crawl through one cave.

Overall a good experience, but a little more rustic and less educational than the usual family adventures. If you are in the area, it is likely worth a visit.

Next stop was in Asheville, NC for a late afternoon meal. The discussion of our meal destination was something much considered over the preceding few weeks. Originally we were heading to the new Sierra Nevada brewery in the area, but found that their taphouse menu was not quite ideal for our crew. We shopped about 10 other potential menus before settling on Pack's Tavern right in the heart of downtown.

And what a great choice it was. First highlight was walking through the door to see World Cup soccer up on the tvs. We are pretty huge soccer fans (members of our local Tottenham Hotspur fanclub, although I am more of a Scottish soccer fan) so it was nice to have that on. As big fans of unique beers, the extensive menu of local brews was great. And so was the food! Definitely a place that we will consider if we find ourselves back in the area. Here are our two rounds of samplers.

Our next stop was for an evening hike at Little Bradley Falls, just a bit south of Asheville. Luckily, @MeffysMom checked the status of the hike online as we were driving - totally washed out! So, we skipped out on that stop. Maybe another time...when we go visit Pack's Tavern again? As we were now a good couple hours or so ahead of our plan, we entertained the idea of another short stop in Lexington, SC at the Old Mill Brewpub. Although another pint certainly wasn't necessary, the owner of the place used to be the owner of a tavern that @MeffysMom tended bar at for a couple years and their head bartender is a friend from those days as well. After a quick flurry of texts, it turned out that they wouldn't be at work that evening so we just kept on driving.

Usually our 'big' overnight rest area visit is about 2 hours, but with the extra time now in our plan, we spent a quality 3.5 hours in the Florida welcome center parking lot. Nothing beats a good night of car sleeping, right? We even stopped for another short rest just south of Jacksonville. Thanks to light overnight traffic and lack of a hike, we still managed to find ourselves pulling into the parking lot of the Best Western Plus Universal Inn right at 7am with time to grab a quick bite to eat (thank you BW for letting us eat on check in day!) before hitting Universal.

 

[KatieLVT]

Looking forward to your report. Love Asheville!

 

[brifraz]

I'm in! I'm also in Maryland and we drive to Disney. The drive is a killer!

I can't wait to read this. I'm from West Virginia. My wife had never flown before and refused to...that was until we drove to Disney with my parents and she rode in the 3rd row of our SUV. Now she wants to fly everywhere...

Pretty sure this is my 35th trip from Maryland and I think I have flown twice. Can't justify the expense of flying unless the trip is a short one, and even then we sometimes drive. With two drivers we have made it happen in 15 hours with minimal breaks, but recently we've taken to having a 2-3 hour sleep stop somewhere along the way. The cost is almost 4x as much to fly - about $75 each way for gas ($150 total) as opposed to $200 each to fly ($600 total). The time cost is not as significant with 1 hour drive to our closest airport, the need to arrive about 2 hours before the flight (parking, baggage, etc), the 2 hour flight, and 1 hour for Magical Express to hotel equalling 6 hours each way while driving tends to be 18 hours. We also REALLY love the convenience of having a car onsite - we generally drive to all the parks except Magic Kingdom.

 

[brifraz]

Looking forward to your report. Love Asheville!

Definitely enjoyed what we saw of the city. Drive into and out of downtown was very nice. It certainly put its best foot forward with this family and we hope to visit again.

 

[myhappyplace]

Looking forward to the rest of your adventure for sure!

 

[acollins876]

Prelude - The Long and Winding Road

And what a great choice it was. First highlight was walking through the door to see World Cup soccer up on the tvs. We are pretty huge soccer fans (members of our local Tottenham Hotspur fanclub, although I am more of a Scottish soccer fan) so it was nice to have that on. As big fans of unique beers, the extensive menu of local brews was great. And so was the food! Definitely a place that we will consider if we find ourselves back in the area. Here are our two rounds of samplers.

COYS to my fellow Spurs supporters.

 

[brifraz]

Part 1A - Universal Morning One

Now that we had been somewhat refueled at the Best Western, it was time for the Universal version of Extra Magic Hours. Last summer, we bought Universal Annual Passes since we would be visiting two summers in a row for a few days, plus the extra hour in the morning and decent discounts on food. So, at 8am we were in the park ready to go...only to find that the current iteration of that bonus hour only includes TWO rides in Universal Studios - Gringott's and Fast & Furious (and nothing in Islands). Really? Only two rides available for that bonus hour?? Mild aggravation aside, we headed back to Gringott's and rode it right away. After the ride, we just toured around Diagon Alley for a little bit and right at 9am caught the first Hogwart's Express over to Islands of Adventure. Just a little after 9am, we were taking a Forbidden Journey with that Potter kid. Following those two thrill rides, this guy needed a little break and a drink of water...and what better way to enjoy water than to mock Poseidon's Fury at the same time. I don't think I'm going out on any limb in saying that show is one of the silliest things I have seen in a theme park, so ever since seeing it a few years ago, I have taken every opportunity to mock it a bit.

The girls were immediately ready for another ride, so they hopped aboard this thriller.

Okay, back to more serious things. We headed to the front of IOA in hopes of riding Hulk, but the line was already close to an hour, so the girls went on Spiderman (which makes me quite queasy) with almost no wait while I walked around the Marvel area trying to find artist signatures in the giant character pictures - try it sometime, his name is there is every one of them! They were off the ride just a little before 10am so we headed to the wet portion of our day. Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges was first up as we know that it is a guaranteed soaking. And it did not disappoint, we were pretty fully soaked by the end of the ride. Next up was Dudley Do-Right, but sadly it was down at the time (and appeared to be down most of the day) so we headed back to Jurassic Park. It was just a little after 10am at this point and pretty much the second we got onto our boat, the skies opened up in a complete downpour. No problem since we were already soaked through and through. Although the outside portions of Jurassic were pretty impossible to see because the rain was so heavy! After our narrow escape from the dinosaurs, we headed out of the park to get dried off before lunch. I won't go into details, but since we didn't have a hotel room yet, our drying off and changing into dry clothes took place in the Universal garage - no pictures of this part of the day, for sure!!

Much dryer and more comfortable and with the rain now at a very light drizzle, we headed to one of our favorite dining locations, Toothsome's Chocolate Emporium (which is pretty funny for a family that doesn't really eat much chocolate). As always, the meal and service were excellent. First round of drinks - the Revolutionary Old Fashioned and the Chocolate Cherry Mule. Second round of drinks - the Wicked Cherry and the Cell AZ-85.

Food - Broccoli-Cheddar Quiche with salad and fresh fruit, the Kettle Chip Nachos (with pulled pork and andouille sausage) and the Truffle Fries (not pictures below).

And, of course dessert had to happen! The PBJ milkshake.

After lunch, we were happy to find out that our room was now ready at the Best Western, so we headed over there to relax a little and get a nap. Next up is a bit of a surprise decision for the evening. See you soon!

 

[brifraz]

COYS to my fellow Spurs supporters.

Looking forward to the next two days with 9 Spurs still in action in the World Cup! Would be pretty cool to have England and Belgium in the final and 8 Spurs playing.

 

[acollins876]

Looking forward to the next two days with 9 Spurs still in action in the World Cup! Would be pretty cool to have England and Belgium in the final and 8 Spurs playing.

A very Spursy World Cup. They'll deserve a bit of time off before joining the rest for pre-season. I'm in Nashville and last year our supporter group held some pretty epic events around the friendly they played here v Man City.

 

[LeighM]

Here we are hitting the road at 6am on June 20th. We started off heading bit west through western Virginia (my old college stomping grounds) and then a little into Tennessee for our first stop. Having gone to college at JMU, I had experience with quite a few cave excursions (Luray Caverns, Endless Caverns, Natural Bridge Caverns) in my past and as a family we had visited a couple of those. Well, Appalachian Caverns in Blountville, TN was our destination. To say it is a bit off the beaten path is an understatement. Only 15 minutes from the Interstate, but along a couple very small and not all that well labelled roads! The caverns were pretty and the tour was very good although I would have preferred a little more of the history and I know our daughter would have preferred a little less of the mud - she did a short crawl through one cave.

Harrisonburg is right over the mountain from where I grew up outside of Charlottesville. I looked into going to JMU but with half of the graduating seniors in my class going to either JMU or VT, I decided to go somewhere else. I was ready to see a new group of people LOL.

 

[brifraz]

Part 1B - Universal Evening One

Or is it? When I left you this morning, we were napping the afternoon away at the Best Western across the street from Universal. We had previously discussed some different options for this evening. Back to Universal and see the new night show...oh, wait, it hasn't opened, yet. Back to Universal to hit a couple rides...hmmm, the app shows some pretty long lines. Over to DHS for some possible AP or DVC Toy Story Land sneak previews...nope, those aren't happening. So, what did we do?

Yup, quick dash over to Epcot for a couple hours. Got some FP+ for Spaceship Earth and Test Track and away we went. Got there around 6pm and did Spaceship Earth on the way in. Then over to Sunshine Seasons in the The Land pavilion for a little dinner followed by a slow walk over to Test Track (with some picture stops along the way!) for an 8:15pm ride. We've got a long history of flower pictures with something blurry in the background and this evening was no exception!

Even with those mid-afternoon naps, we were still quite weary from our travels, so we packed it in early - back at the hotel around 9pm and asleep soon after. Tomorrow we hit Universal again and then head to Port Canaveral for the night.