Trip Report A Very Merry and very expensive 50th Birthday Celebration

Who: Brian and I
When: November 12-19
Where: Pop Century and Cabana Bay
Why: My 50th Birthday

Hello again everyone! My husband and I were able to make it back to Orlando again this year to celebrate my 50th birthday. I have to be honest I was not looking forward to turning 50 this year so a figured spending some time in the sun at 2 of my favourite places would help make it a lot more magical .



Our flight left at 2pm and we had a connection to catch in Ottawa. Due to the weather our flight from our home to Ottawa came in a bit late so it was a race to get to customs. When we got there they would not let us through because our luggage had not been transferred yet. I think I've mentioned before that I have really bad anxiety so I had a panic attack in the airport. It was embarrassing but I cannot control it and it can be quite scary. I was shaking and couldn't catch my breathe and trying hard to keep it together. Luckily for me Brian was able to get someone to help us with the luggage situation and they finally let us on the plane. The airline ended up holding the plane for all of the passengers that were running late so thank goodness for small miracles.

The good news is when we were at the airport in our hometown I saw someone who knows me from my job and she works for the airline we flew with so she had our tickets upgraded to 1st class on both flights! What a wonderful surprise that was for both of us.

Sunset

Menu for 1st class


We played it safe and we both got the cheese and fruit tray and I got a margarita because I really needed it .


We arrived in Orlando at 7:20pm and this is the next picture we took almost 2 hours later...


We quickly checked in, dropped off our luggage and hopped on a bus to Disney Springs to get a late dinner at Polite Pig.


After a delicious meal we did a little shopping until 11pm and then it was time to head back to Pop to unpack and get some sleep.
We really wanted these 2 decorations but they definitely would not fit in our luggage .

 

[Beastly74]

Friday, Nov 15th.

We slept in until a little after 9am and then it was time to get ready and finish packing everything up for our move to Cabana Bay at Universal. Before we left I remembered that I had forgotten to take pictures of our room. Sorry about the messy bed.


I didn't take a picture of the tub area but it was in need of an update/refresh and I think I read that they are going to start renovations at Pop next year.

On our way to drop of our stuff with luggage service (which has been moved to the back - last year I am sure we dropped our luggage off in the front) we ran into Goofy .

A nice surprise!

We headed to DS for lunch at Polite Pig again.

This trip we tried the quick service dining plan and this restaurant is the best value for your money and it is always good food and service (at least in our opinion). I don't think we will get the plan next time because unless you get alcohol with your meal I don't think you are saving anything.

We didn't spend a lot of time in DS because I wanted to get to Cabana Bay before 2pm so we caught the bus back to Pop and got a cab to Universal (for the rest of the trip Brian got the Uber app and we used them because it was much cheaper). The next pictures I have is of our room at the hotel (we were on a strict schedule because we had somewhere important to be for 3pm).



The room was fine but it was not as updated as our room last year and it seemed a bit smaller. It was also only on the 2nd floor in a different building so our view was not nearly as great either. However if I zoomed in a lot we could say we had a theme park view .


Our actual close-up view was a parking lot but at least there was a palm tree right outside the window .

 

[Beastly74]

I was very glad that Cabana Bay had our room ready for us early so that we could head to CityWalk for 3pm.
Picture of a cool light fixture near the elevators.


We caught the bus and were on our way to pick-up tickets for the Orlando Informer meet-up. We had done it last year and had an amazing time so we were excited for another fun-filled 2 nights. Brian's friend was coming again this year too so we were meeting him a little later.

Pointing the way


Once we got our tickets for the event they directed us to an area where they served free snacks and drinks. Last year everyone got $15 gift cards and we all agreed that we preferred that because we could choose what we wanted (which in our case was coffee ). We grabbed a can of pop (soda) and a couple snacks and then made our way back to CityWalk for Starbucks.


At about 4:30 we headed over towards Islands of Adventure to take some pictures and waited to be able to enter at 5pm.
Brian likes to poke fun at my height so he kept telling me I was almost too short to ride The Hulk .



We were allowed to enter about 10 minutes early and we were on our way .


For the event you can pick your tickets up at 3pm but you cannot enter the parks until 5pm. Also the party does not start until after the park officially closes which for this night was 7pm. This means that it is quite busy between 5-7 but that is okay we just enjoyed walking around for the 1st couple of hours.

 

[fractal]

Happy 50th!

35,000 + steps! that's almost 20 miles. Impressive!

 

[Beastly74]

Happy 50th!

35,000 + steps! that's almost 20 miles. Impressive!

Thank you! It was the best way to spend my 50th and I am so thankful that we were able to make it happen.
I was surprised our feet did not hurt the next day, I did have some swelling at the end of the night so the top of my left foot was rubbing against my shoe but I just switched sandals the next day and I was fine the rest of the week .

 

[Beastly74]

We started off in Seuss Landing and decided to do the Trolley Train ride. It was the first Universal ride we did on our first trip in 2011.
We walked around and took pictures before going on the ride.



I was almost short enough to stand under the arch .





The wait time said 20 minutes but we waited closer to 30. The wait times definitely got a lot higher when all of the Orlando Informer attendees arrived. I couldn't help thinking that it would be a bit frustrating for day guests who were wondering why the waits were so long close to park closing. We had a few people stop and ask us what the braclets were for when we were walking around.
A cute ride and the views are beautiful.




We had still not heard for Brian's friend so we continued on our way.

 

[meggo819]

Once we got our tickets for the event they directed us to an area where they served free snacks and drinks.

We went to the meetup this night too (I may get around to writing a report)! We never even checked out the snack area.