Pre-Trip A rare trip with the entire family !

Most of the time when we post it's with my wife, daughter, and myself. We do have two boys who are 22 and 19, but they rarely seem interested in heading down to FL. That is, unless Universal Horror Nights is happening. So, we were talking a few weeks ago about heading down for Food and Wine, but the boys wanted to hit Universal. The tentative plan is to do a 5:30 AM flight from Philly on Thursday, 9/16 and drop the boys off at Universal for the day while my wife, daughter, and me head to Epcot. My daughter made reservations for Ratatouille at 3:00 PM. We figured that we can hit enough of the food booths that we want in three hours. We'll then head back to Universal afterwards to meet back up with the boys for HHN. We're getting Express passes for a Thursday night so I think we can hit all of the houses. Friday and Saturday plans are still up in the air although we're leaning towards one day at Universal and probably a hopper between Magic Kingdom and Hollywood. Plans are still in the making, but I'll keep everyone on board as things develop.

 

[macefamily]

While I was torturing myself on Velocicoaster, the ladies were having a good old time at Epcot. They said the best dish they had was from the lobster stand. They also had 3:00 PM reservations for the new Ratatouille ride. After an afternoon of wine and food they would come over to Universal and meet us for Horror Nights. Sounds like a plan, right ?
Charlie Murphy again....."Wrong !"

 

[macefamily]

My son and I decided to get a jump on things and get our Horror Nights ticket and Express Pass before my wife and daughter arrived. We stood in a small line for 20 minutes. I had the paperwork with me for the tickets, and I handed it to the customer service person who was tapping away at the keys and talking to herself. This took 15 minutes. She finally spoke to us and said, "You have no confirmed tickets." OK. That took 35 minutes as we grew closer to an early admission time which was 25 minutes away ? I called my wife and they just parked at Universal. She was on her way. Of course, me being the 'quick trigger/no patience' person I am said that I didn't care, I just wanted a full refund. My wife arrived and she made a few phone calls and found out that the order number changed because of an edit she made. She had the tickets in 5 minutes.
Horror Nights was awesome. We did the Scream Early entry so we did two of the attractions before the gates even opened. This helped because with our Express Pass we did all of the attractions by 10:00 PM.
Friday would be a full day at Universal with the whole family. We also had reservations at The Boathouse for 8:30 PM so we would leave the park early to go back and freshen up before dinner.

 

[Songbird76]

Glad the tickets worked out eventually. That kind of stuff always stresses me out.

Your daughter has a beautiful smile!!

 

[macefamily]

We've been contemplating on whether we should cancel our annual passes for Universal because we've only been there twice in the past two years; not really worth it when you live in PA. It still pays for itself if you stay a few days and use the free parking. Although, if prices continue to spike, it may price out of our range.
Anyway, this was the first time our family visited Universal in a year. When we visited last September, it was totally out of control. No enforcement of masks, and people didn't care. We decided to try it again one year later.
Love the tacos at BumbleBee Man's food truck. Full day of Disney coming all day Saturday ! Plan is to hop as many parks as possible although it's going to be 93 with a dew point of 71 so it will feel like mid-July for us. Legs and feet are sore after two days of 10 miles+ walking in the heat.

 

[macefamily]

One more day at Universal with the whole family. Going to leave early to head back to the townhouse to freshen up before our
Boathouse reservation.

 

[macefamily]

We had a nice rest and freshened up to hit Disney Springs. My wife forgot to bring her "trader" pins so she worked on starting a new 2021 collection. We had plenty of time to kill before our reservation so we took in the sights and visited the World of Disney store. Absolutely packed; should have expected it on a Friday evening.

 

[macefamily]

We made our rounds at Disney Springs and found our way back to the Boathouse for our reservation. This is our fifth time at the Boathouse. We've never had a bad experience. We accumulated some points on our Disney Chase card so this dinner was going to be 'anything goes.' My daughter and I split those Blue Point oysters with the Bombay cocktail sauce w/ fresh horseradish and the cucumber mignonette. Perfect appetizer. The rolls are honey glazed with a fresh butter that complimented them perfectly. My wife and daughter went with the steak paired with the Oscar option. My son went straight filet with a baked potato as big as a football. I had the red grouper in a veggie chili sauce. Outstanding. The server was awesome. He was a big dude from Jersey. I asked him to pick me out a perfect wine to go with my fish and it was great. He was very personable and checked on us at least five times.

 

[macefamily]

Time to leave and pick up the dog from Best Friends kennel. Need to get some rest for a full final day of Disney parks.

 

[macefamily]

We woke up early to get Bean to the kennel, and we headed to Hollywood Studios. It was hot. I went to swipe my Magicband to enter, and I got the dreaded blue flash. So there I stood holding up the line as I could feel people's eyes piercing at me from behind. The CM called a supervisor over who took me off to the side. I explained that I paid my annual pass dues three months ago. She told me to go to the customer service window for my band to be activated. She said it will be "a very short wait." Charlie Murphy again, "Wrong !"
The line snaked around. I was livid. My wife explained that the band needed to be activated during my first entrance after renewing my annual pass. I was ready to leave. We waited in that "short" line for 35 minutes. Not a good start to my day. This is not the first time this happened to me. Once I had to reactivate my wristband at Epcot right after I had it activated that morning at Disney Springs.
So after serving our Disney administrative duties, we proceeded into the park to meet up with our kids. We sent them in ahead of us while we dealt with the delay.

 

[macefamily]

Probably the biggest decision of the day, "Do we turn left or right ?" Well, RotR was already 120 minutes. It was the first day without group reservations. So we went right.
I immediately noticed this as we got to the end of Sunset. All I could think of were the rumors on this board. Could it be true ? Is the great immortal Aerosmith going to be replaced by some Disney Channel kid show star who will fizzle into the background in two years?
Say it isn't so.

 

[macefamily]

Tower of Terror was listed as a 30 minute wait which is short compared to its average time. It's definitely one of our favorite rides. With all the problems it's having, I hope Disney doesn't mothball it. I can't remember when all of the ride cars were operating. Everytime we go it's two cars.
As usual, that 30 minute wait stretched out to about 45 minutes. Something must have happened because we were stuck in the queue, in the sun. Did I mention it was hot ?

 

[macefamily]

I messed up. I totally skipped our Saturday morning brunch visit to Art Smith's Homecomin'. How could I do that ? Anyway, this is one of multiple visits for brunch there. I always start if off with a Southern Mary, but I told myself this time that I was only going to drink half of it because it's so filling; but delicious. We ordered our usual fried green tomatoes which we rarely see in PA, but have fell in love with them thanks to Chef Art. They also had a special that morning for hushpuppies which we had to try. They were excellent especially with their hot honey dipping sauce and pimento cheese dipping sauce. I also had to get myself two of the Church Lady deviled eggs. No one else in the family likes deviled eggs except for me.
I wasn't taking a picture of that lady at the bar. I guess the timing just worked out. She doesn't seem too happy.
I went "light" and ordered the fried egg on avocado toast with a side of cheese and grits. With the bloody mary and appetizers it was a good choice. My son had the french toast, my daughter had the Benedict plate, and my wife had chicken and waffles. Homecomin' never pulls back on portion sizes. Always fit for a queen or king. You definitely need to get a long day of walking in after brunch there.









half of it b

ecause

 

[macefamily]

Sorry for the out of order diversion; mixed up our sequence of events. After ToT we checked out the wait times which were slowly inflating. Runaway Railway was at 45 minutes so we made our way over there. I can't believe I actually walked right by the Brown Derby outdoor bar without getting a Long Island Iced Tea. It had to be the first time ever. I did notice that Ron was working, and he had quite a few people waiting in line for their drinks. It was just too hot out for me to think about drinking alcohol.
I was happy to see that the pre-show was reopened. It was the first time my son saw it. Last time we were down you just walked right through. He thought it was quite clever.

 

[Zipadeelady]

I still haven't been able to try Homecomin'. It's been on my list for our last few trips. I will have to eat there multiple times to try all the things on their menu that I want. Those fried green tomatoes look delicious.

 

[cgersic]

I haven't seen the preshow yet. I've been on it twice and just wasn't "wowed" so I'm hoping it will change my perspective!

 

[macefamily]

After RR we decided to check out the Star Wars situation. Again, unbelievable that I had no urge whatsoever for a flight of beers at Baseline. It was way too hot out. As we made our way down the street, I couldn't believe the queue for RotR. It ran outside the area and snaked towards Muppet Vision 3D. The wait time app said 120+. No one had any urge to go through that. We moved on. Smugglers Run was listed as 35 so we made a bee line for there.
It was that time of day where the finality of the trip was setting in. It was almost mid afternoon, and it was our final day at the parks. My wife was planning on going down again in October, but that plan has been cancelled since then. I'll be going down in the beginning of November, but I'll be dog-sitting; no parks for us.

 

[macefamily]

When we got off Smugglers Run and got back into that sun it was rough. No breeze, few clouds and sweltering humidity. We decided to walk through the park and head out for a hop over to Magic Kingdom. I still didn't have the desire to stop by the Brown Derby bar for a mixed drink; just wasn't feeling it. We walked through the shops and ran into a cavalcade just in time.

 

[Zipadeelady]

When we got off Smugglers Run and got back into that sun it was rough. No breeze, few clouds and sweltering humidity. We decided to walk through the park and head out for a hop over to Magic Kingdom. I still didn't have the desire to stop by the Brown Derby bar for a mixed drink; just wasn't feeling it. We walked through the shops and ran into a cavalcade just in time. View attachment 593471View attachment 593473

When I'm planning trips to Disney I'm always saying I'm going to eat all of this and drink all these drinks but when I actually get there I'm lucky if I eat or drink half of the things I had on my list. The excitement and heat definitely have an affect on my appetite while there.

 

[Songbird76]

When I'm planning trips to Disney I'm always saying I'm going to eat all of this and drink all these drinks but when I actually get there I'm lucky if I eat or drink half of the things I had on my list. The excitement and heat definitely have an affect on my appetite while there.

Oh good, so it's NOT just me? I have a really big problem there with my appetite...I think with the heat and just walking so much, you get really tired, and then I have no desire to eat anything. And I have to hydrate so much there's very little room for sustenance.

 

[Tom 55]

Just started firming up the reservations and ticket purchases last night. We tried to get Boo Bash for September 24th, but it's sold out. Airfare and AirBNB are secured. Flying out of Philly on Wednesday night. Wife and daughter are hitting Food and Wine on Thursday with reservations for Ratatouille in the afternoon. Me and my boys will be at Universal for the day. We're all hooking up in the evening at Universal for Horror Night. Friday will be half day Universal and we're going to do a Disney park in the evening. Saturday will be Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom. As usual, going to be a jam packed long weekend.

I was at Boo Bash on the 24th with my family of 8.