Trip Report *COMPLETED* OH NO! I've lost my magicband, Im hot and my back is actin up! A September 2015 TR

Hello all!

Well I'm home from WDW and working, SIGH, having major withdrawals... As i stood in my kitchen making my coffee for work this morning, i imagined to be in the POP food court filling my mug for a day in the park. Ahh i can dream

We started our countdown just under 180 days and i cant believe how quickly it came and now went It was an amazing trip and we will definitely be back!

I am still getting all my photos together and jotting down notes but while my memory is fresh, i thought id start my TR

If you would like to read my Pre-Trip plus a little history on my past Disney trips you can read here-
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...eyworld-plus-a-past-trips-mini-report.901740/

Who:

Ciara(ME!)-A disneyworld freak, 7th trip to the world, 1st time at UNI
Billy- My amazing boyfriend, His 1st time to FLORIDA ever

When:
September 20th-26th

Where: Stayed in RM 9324 at POP century
Visited every Disney park, both Disney water parks, Universal studios, Islands of adventure and a couple of Disney resorts!

We took lots of pictures, ate lots of food and had a whole lot of fun! Stay tuned

 

[Ciara]

Day 3/Part 2-September 22nd 2015
So we moved it from 1pm to 3:30pm and it was no problem! We could still make safari too, not that either of us were super into it that day. Since our next fast pass wasn't until 2 pm we sort of wandered.

Animal kingdom always seems to be hot! And today it was like 92. It was soooo hot! This day more than any we found ourselves trying to find shade and sitting down. We wanted on Kali, but all day the wait was pretty high. We had that fastpass at 2, but wanted on sooner!! We kept trying to move it but no luck! We rode dinosaur when it had a short wait. I forgot how fun this is! I don’t remember it moving so much! One downer here, was the kid next to us was trying to get a picture of the big scary dino and he totally ruined it for Billy! I don’t know why he was trying to get a picture or why he thought it was okay to bring out a bright phone on and dark ride, but wow annoying! Billy even looks annoyed in the photo. Like dude what are you doing??

After Dinosaur we walked the trails and Billy had a beer and I had sangria. It was good but too hot for me to really enjoy it.

We debated on nemo but didn't want to miss our fp, plus the line is all outside with no shade. Everest had a short wait so we did another round of riding together and doing solo rider. Man we like this ride!

We had a frozen lemonade on the way to Kali it was good but too sweet! I only had about half. Finally it was time for Kali! We had a really fun ride and of course got completely soaked! We were by far the wettest of the boat, but we were happy to be soaked! It was the first time all day we felt comfortable in that heat! We dried out quickly and hit tough to be a bug on our way out for lunch. I used to be terrified of this show and this was actually the first time I watched the whole thing! Decided to skip our safari this time. We were just sooo into being lazy, so we headed to lunch a bit early. Lunch was at rain forest and our waiter was really nice! Our food was great, Billy got ribs and I got their Brazilian kabobs.

Can you tell I am the more adventurous eater? Haha. We had a volcano for dessert! Those things are so rich and soo sweet, we only had about half. Once lunch was over AK was closed so we headed back to the resort. Our plan was to go to downtown to shop. But we were tired and didn’t feel like shopping so we napped for a couple hours

 

[Ciara]

Day 3/Part 3-September 22nd 2015
Our reservation was for a late dinner and we pretty much went straight there. A bus from DTD to Old Key West.

Dinner was great! I was eyeing bills ribs earlier so I got some for myself. Billy had a steak with cheese, I can’t seem to find it on the menu so I’m not sure what its name was.

For dessert I had a Key Lime Tart and Billy had a Banana Bread Pudding Sundae.

We both got a drink with dinner, a turtle krawl and a mai tai, these had us wanting beer again. Too sweet!

I really like Old Key West, but we didn’t stay there long. Funny story! Normally this would gross me out but we were outside not inside and it is Florida after all. I'm pretty sure it was a cockroach.. But as we were finishing dinner, a little friend came over to say hi! This thing was like charging at my feet and freaked me out! It was like it wasn't scared of me at all! I tried crushing him with a chair and he seemed to get the memo he was unwelcome because he ran off and never came back! Since we had slept so much we decided to go to DTD before they closed. We had beers at the boathouse, which I love! I want to eat there next.

Still not ready to leave we grabbed another beer to go from splitsville and walked around DTD, security was sort of following us around.. Apparently we look like were up to no good. I LOVE DTD…Now Disney Springs. I could spend as much time there as the parks! I wish we had got going earlier so we could have enjoyed more but we would be back! We stayed till a little after midnight and back to the hotel for a good night’s rest because tomorrow was going to be an early start and a loooong day! It was Universal day and of all our days we rode the most attractions here!

 

[disneylover97]

First Trip Report i have read and followed, thank you so much for sharing!! you're making me excited for my trip! hope you had a good time, it sure looks like you did

 

[ScarletBegonias]

So awesome you got to ride EE that many times! Standby the day we were there was 30 minutes. We were with my family, so there wasn't the option of going back to single rider. They were ready to move on.

 

[lostpro9het]

View attachment 113849

Did you like this brew? I've passed it several times and never jumped at it.

 

[Ciara]

Did you like this brew? I've passed it several times and never jumped at it.

I really liked it! I've actually never been disappointed by any beer made by lagunitas, pretty solid beer

 

[KaitlinH]

I'm loving this trip report. Ciara, you and your boyfriend are the cutest.

 

[Ciara]

I apologize for the massive delay!

Things have been crazy busy. We have been doing a ton of fall festivities, family visiting and now heading to the beach on Saturday.

Hopefully next week ill pick things back up. The best day are still to come! I think that's why i'm putting them off... The most writing, pictures, rides, food , ect.

I also have some very exciting news....We will be headed back to Disney November 2016!

We do have a decision to make though... Disneyland or Disneyworld.
At first we thought Disneyland hands down, because its cheaper from Oregon right?! Plus Disneyworld had so much construction we were hoping to go back when more is finished, possibly 2018? Anyways after looking at pricing, factoring in all the food and transporttaion cost, Disneyland for 4 days is about the same price as Disneyworld for a week. We are also looking into getting annual Disneyland passes and going 2016 and 2017, we wanna be sure we would go at least twice though. Lots of option to juggle... but one things for sure... WE ARE DOING DISNEY NEXT YEAR!

 

[Disney-leaf]

Really enjoying your TR! Expedition Everest is just the best!

 

[ScarletBegonias]

YAY!!!!! You're going back!!

As far as Disneyland, I've never been, but if it were the same price, I'd probably go to the world. Either way, I'm sure you can't go wrong!

 

[Ciara]

Day 4/Part 1-September 23rd 2015

We were both pretty excited for universal. I always think it is fun to do things you have never done and we both agreed we were looking forward to bigger rollercoasters! Armed in our matching H.Potter tees, we were ready to conquer the day. We got the breakfast sandwiches from our food court and sat down at a small table while I looked up uber. The breakfast sandwiches were alright. Kind of boring as far as taste but it was just enough food and easy to eat while multitasking. Uber was only something like 6 minutes away so we ate quickly and headed to the front of the lobby. We both agreed we were feeling like Disney traitors. Our shirt were a dead giveaway that, that day we were finding our fun elsewhere. Maybe it’s just my imagination but I swear some were glaring haha We felt better once we were greeted by other Disney guest that were all headed of property. There was quite a few people standing outside waiting for taxis and such and our uber was the first of all the cars to pull up! We rode in the nicest car for uber this day it was a Cadillac with leather interior. Fancy! We arrived at universal just after 9am. The first difference I noted was that the area around universal is a lot less happy and seemed sort of run down. Even the bus stop/taxi drop off area was kind of icky. The walk from the bus area to the park entrance is also very long! Even now as i think about it i feel like it took forever!

We debated on which park to start at the whole way, but because hulk was closed, decided on Universal.

Let me tell you, we were soo incredibly sad about hulk being closed. I showed Billy videos of the coaster before we left and out of any ride he was really looking forward to that one.

I knew the first thing I wanted to do was despicable me but it was already at a 40min wait. We are not very patient people when it comes to waiting on something that's over in less than 10min and decide on our first day anything over 40 mins was a no go. Excited to get on something, billy said we should check back and i agreed, unfortunately the wait only grew and we never made it on. The next ride was at the top of our todo list... Rip ride and rocket!

The wait said 10 min so we got in line, but it really took about 25. We found that wait times at universal are off and toke us almost double the stated time. I started really hating fastpass people here. I think the price they ask for the fastpass at universal is insane when you’re already paying so much for the ticket! BUT at universal when you pay that nonsense, you ALWAYS skip the line. They literally cut off the regular line and let all the fastpass people on first. Maybe this is why wait times are so off? The locker system universal uses i sort of liked. I found it rather handy but i definitely begged Billy to handle it, my problem was that the area is always small and lots of sweaty stinky people crowded into one area that small is just gross to me The roller coast was cray! The beginning when you go straight up woahhh! I felt like I was going to fall out the whole time but it was awesome and definitely a thrill!

 

[ScarletBegonias]

We were just not impressed with Universal and do not plan on going back! I loved loved loved the Harry Potter stuff, but the rest was just kind of "meh". It just was not Disney. The tickets were so expensive, and I hated the locker system! The first experience with it at Gringott's I locked my stuff in a locker before selecting "our" locker! I had no idea how it worked. I had to get an employee to help us. They do not give you enough space and everyone goes in with like 5 other family members! We bought a two day ticket, and didn't even go back the second day wasting a HUGE amount of money. It wasn't worth it for us! I hope you guys had a better time!!!

 

[prfctlyximprct]

@Ciara come back!!!

 

[Ciara]

Day 4/Part 2-September 23rd 2015
We had no idea which rides to go on next so we walked through the streets slowly and in circles taking in universal. We approached this museum looking building and realized it was Revenge of the Mummy and it had a five minute wait. This was more of a walk on…Score! I didn’t really read up much on universal so I had no idea what to expect but this was so fun! So we went twice! I wasn't expecting a roller coaster at all, a fun ride for sure. We then looked at our map and tried to find transformers.

Transformers… I have never had problems with motion sickness but the other day at DHS star tours made me kind of sick. I thought it was just a fluke. We found out on transformers that it's no fluke and if I wanted to make it on anymore rides we better skip anything 3D and moving. Just moving ok, just 3D okay, but combined they were awful. This really bummed me out because the one thing i did know about universal was about their love for screens and using 3D. Since I wasn't feeling well we sat and had some water.

Looking at the universal Halloween decorations, they were much different than Disneys! Definitely more “scary”. Then we walked through Springfield taking pictures.

We originally planned on having a duff beer but it was only about 10:30am at this point and i still wasn't feeling good, so that didn't happen. One thing i didn't plan as well as i thought for was the heat... Its never been more than about 85 when i have gone and i enjoy the hot weather so i have never had a problem. This trip was hot, so hot, 92 plus degrees everyday. I was dying, Billy was dying. Being hot and not feeling the best just made me feel worse. It was too hot. Next time we will be going in Nov-Feb!

 

[Ciara]

Day 4/Part 3-September 23rd 2015
I saw that miib had a short wait! Or so we thought so we got in line. Again this took about 25 min when the wait said 10.

I totally kicked Billy's butt! My score was like 40000 higher than his, I asked him if his gun was broken haha. We wanted to ride the Hogwarts train the right way and there wasn’t much else on the universal side that didn't use screens. We headed towards the entrance so we could get to islands of adventure. On the way we saw homer and Bart but just missed their line!

Then we saw Marilyn Monroe! I wanted to get a photo for billy and he wanted to meet a character! Well what a character he met!

This was so fun for me to watch. Billy walks up and ask for a picture and she instantly turns on her character and gets all cuddly close to billy, touching him and asking where he's from, that he came all this way to see little ol' her. From Billy's face I can see him so embarrassed, he had no idea that characters really play the part and felt weird to have this women all over him when I'm standing right there! He thought she was really flirting with him, he can dream! Haha I laughed at him and told him he wasn't in trouble this time
Right after we saw Marilyn we saw scooby and gy so we stopped to hang with them for a bit!

When we finally got over to island of adventure we were on a mission.

Walking past everything we were just trying to see what to do! We were really winging it this day and it ended up being so fun!

 

[Ciara]

Day 4/Part 4-September 23rd 2015
We ended up finding ourselves in hogs mead! Yay!! We had made it to Harry Potter, this is why we were here!

The dragon’s coaster had a short wait all day so we got on that first. We ended up riding two times in a row, both red side, this is by far my favorite coaster we went on. I love that you hang down and the first big drop is so fun. We looked around hogsheads a little, it was really busy. I enjoyed watching the young wizards trying to cast their spells! Very cool.

We talk about food and decided we would be back! It was lunch time and we were hungry. Billy wanted burgers, and burger digs was just around the corner. Average burgers and after being on the dining plan all week a little shocking to pay $35 dollars for. Even though it was more than hot, Billy was being a baby about the water rides, not wanting to get wet! He wanted to put his clean dry tank top on and vetoed getting wet after. No screens and no wetness, what would we ride?! Why had we came here?! I wanted to ride more rides! Haha. I convinced him to ride the Jurassic park ride, before he put his dry shirt on. He enjoyed that one and so did I! We barely got wet, but being hot we both changed anyway. I wanted to ride ripsaw falls, since I love splash. We of course had to wear ponchos…Billy. The wait for this ride was ridiculous. And I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

 

[Beckett]

Awesome trip report!

 

[Ciara]

Day 4/Part 5-September 23rd 2015
Billy really wanted to do Dr.doom and I agreed thinking it would be more like tower of terror. It was not! It shoots you so fast into the air and then it’s just over. That’s what we waited for? Ehh whatever. Back to hogsmead we went! Even though I knew it might make me sick I had to do the Forbidden journey. We waited a long time for this one I think it was over our 40 min rule. The ride was so cool! I had to close my eyes a lot though to prevent getting dizzy We decide to try the blue side of the dragon coaster and then hop on the train over to diagon alley. Blue side sucks and red was better so we had to go one last time on the good side. 4 times on the dueling dragons! The wait for the train said 10 min and it was more like 30. This wait really sucked because we were getting pretty tired at this point. The train ride is sooooo awesome though, especially if you've seen the movies. We didn't spend very long in diagon alley because like I said we were getting tired. But I did have butter beer ice cream and yum!! It was amazing. Billy got a beer but I have no idea what it was.

After we finished looking around we slowly walked towards the entrance and caught the beginning of the parade, well more like got stuck because of the parade. We decide on a final ride on rip ride and rocket and then we were heading out. The end of the day is a blur, it was so hot and we were so tired. We got back to the hotel just after 630 and did laundry, watched Disney channel and ordered Pizza Hut. We found this froggy on the stairwell and for the first time this trip got a towel animal!

We had an awesome time at universal but we were both happy to be back at Disney. Another early night for an early morning breakfast at be our guest!

 

[Ciara]

Day 5/Part 1-September 24th 2015

We were late! Again! Our reservation was at 8:05. Uber dropped us at the contemporary about 8:10... We hustled to BOG only stopping for a moment to take a picture of my favorite sight in the world. Morning at the magic kingdom… ahhh to me it’s the most magical thing in the world Luckily the weather was cloudy and cooler, it was a nice break after it being so dang hot!

They let us in like it was nothin!

I was worried billy wouldn't like breakfast because he is such a picky eater but we both did! He especially liked one of the pastries and ate the whole thing, only giving me a tiny bit!

 

[Ciara]

Day 5/Part 2-September 24th 2015
I had never seen new fantasyland so we took our time there after breakfast.

We ended up riding the barnstormer because it had like a 5 min wait. I tried to convince billy to get on Little Mermaid but he was not havin it! He wanted a thrill ride to wake him up. Our first fast pass wasn't until like 1230, so that wasn't exactly going to happen soon. We utilized the app instead to find rides with short waits and played around the park for a while, stopping for photo pass often. We were both so happy to be here this day!

We watched philharmonic magic, a favorite of mine! Billy loves Stitch so i knew it was coming and it did...Stitch... Billy agreed after that its terrible but was happy to go on once. Billy has this stitch voice and he is still doing it all the time, even months later haha. I dragged billy onto it's a small world and haunted mansion next. At some point we rode Dumbo too!

He loved the hitchhiking ghost! I didn't tell him too many details of things before hand as to not ruin the surprise and it definitely worked! I loved seeing his reactions, like a kid at heart he is! Pirates was suppose to open the next day so we thought we would take a look. There were a bunch of cms outside pirates and they all acted innocent but I just knew something was up.