Trip Report no tropical storm can slow us down - Nov 5-12, 2022

Orlando is my favorite place to vacation! There is literally always something new and I feel like it is impossible to do it all! Earlier in 2022, we decided to do something we never had done before, take a Universal only vacation. While it was hard for me to make the trip to the Orlando area and not go to Disney AT ALL (not even a quick stop at Disney Springs), we really enjoyed our time there. We purchased Universal Annual Passes prior to our March trip, knowing that we were going again in November for a Disney and Universal trip.
Who: Me, Aaron, Joseph (8), Sadie (6), gramma, Aunt SuSu, Aunt Denise, and Kathy. (You won't see much of Denise or Kathy, because they did a lot of things on their own)

When: November 5-12, 2022
Where: our first night we stayed at Holiday Inn across from Universal (I love that you can walk to Universal) and the rest of the trip we were at the Sheraton Vistana Resort (Aunt Denise owns a timeshare there so she got us a great deal that was hard to pass up)
We did Universal for three days, Disney for two days, one day exploring the Magic Kingdom Resort Hotels, one day at the pool, and one day stuck in our room because of the tropical storm.

November 5
Our flight was at 5:30am on Spirit from IND to MCO. The plan was for my mom to spend the night at our house and leave around 3am. Well she didn't feel well the night before (earlier in the year she had her gallbladder and appendix removed in an emergency surgery) so she stayed home that night which meant we had to go North to go South, so we had to get up earlier than originally planned. Surprisingly everything went smooth that morning and we were at the airport and on the bus from the long term parking lot to the terminal by 3:30am.

Only thing that didn't go very smoothly, was that the airport didn't have any coffee locations opened that early in the morning. Coffee should be a 24/7 thing at every airport! Everything about the flight was perfect. We arrived to MCO and were on the fonorail by 8:40am.

We went straight to the Dunkin on MCO and got COFFEE, donuts, and bagels! This was our first time staying off property without a rental car, which meant it was time to call and Uber! I had purchased a travel car seat for Sadie that is foldable and compact, so I didn't have to worry about getting an uber with a car seat. We decided to go this route because I didn't want anyone to worry about driving in an unfamiliar place or not getting an adult beverage while on vacation just because they had to drive. I actually loved it and it was super convenient and I felt like it wasn't that expensive (usually around $15-$30 depending on where we were going). We checked in at the Holiday Inn at Universal for our one night stay and I paid an additional $30 to do an early check in so we were able to go straight up to our room to take a nap! I really don't know how long we napped for but we were in CityWalk by 1:30, ready to start our adventure!

We took it slow and got donuts and tacos in Springfield before watching the Horror Makeup Show (which is amazingly funny!)

We had one happy gramma when we found Scooby and Gang! Her favorite!!

Afterwards we went on ET and just kind of walked around. I will admit, we didn't do many rides at Universal the first two days because no one really wanted to wait in lines. We did some spells around Diagon Alley.

 

[Cetta]

the one thing I was most looking forward to at the Contemporary was the balcony to overlook Magic Kingdom. We had no plans of visiting Magic Kingdom this trip, so this was the closest we were going to get! New favorite spot and I was shocked no one else was out there!

Back to the monorail to head to our next stop...The Polynesian!
First thing on our list....Dole Whips for everyone!!

Anyone else annoyed that Joseph insisted on doing silly faces every picture? 8 year old

Then on to cross more off the list...Surfboard, Moana, Hidden Mickey, Pineapple, and a tiki man looking through a window.

Picture with a tiki man taller than you

 

[Cetta]

Tiki man you could hold in your hands

While at the Polynesian, I bought myself a 50th anniversary sweatshirt. I celebrated 15 years with my employer a week before our trip and as a gift they gave me $1,000 in visa gift cards. I had used the gift card to buy my mom her wand and a couple small things like snacks but I wanted to get myself at least a thing or two. I usually never buy myself stuff on these trips...I am just happy to be able to provide these experiences for my family and my mom, so things are not important to me.

Back onto the Monorail to head to the Grand Floridian for the grand finale of our resort hopping day! As soon as we got into the Grand Floridian there was another photopass photog so we got a couple nice picture of all of us

We stopped in the giftshop and I fell in love with this purse! I had Aaron pose with it so I could send a picture to his sister haha

We searched around for Tinker Bell, Cinderella and Prince Charming, Mrs Potts, and hidden Mickey in the carpet. I knew that the gingerbread house would be there but taking pictures with it was on the list of course!

WE took a silly picture while wiating for everyone to finish up their hunt.

you ready for something crazy and I still laugh about? Well everyone was hungry again so my mom and Aunt SuSu went to look at the menu for the QS location at the GF but they didn't like it so we decided we would Uber somewhere close to the Sheraton Vistana for dinner. I pulled up the map and rattled off a bunch of places...wanna guess where we ended up ubering to? Golden Corral. ugh! Like really? we are in Florida with all kinds of amazing places to eat and everyone votes on Golden Corral? Want to know what is even more crazy? it's the fact that they talked about how good it was the rest of the trip. ugh. Still can't believe that is where we ate.

 

[Tiki Traveler]

Congratulations on your 15 year work anniversary! What a nice gift from your employer.

Love the scavenger hunt and thanks for sharing it!

We left WDW that day and I hope to post soon.

 

[MickeyCB]

I love your scavenger hunt pdf, thanks so much for sharing!
Did you do a scavenger hunt on one of your previous trips?

 

[Cetta]

I love your scavenger hunt pdf, thanks so much for sharing!
Did you do a scavenger hunt on one of your previous trips?

we attempted to do a scavenger hunt on our trip in November 2021 but we only got to two out of the four MK resorts we had planned. We ended up meeting up with some friends that day which took more time out of our day than I thought. I was silly and deleted the first one I created thinking I would never need it again, so this one I had to start from nothing. I was actually surprised we finished it this time, especially with a larger group of people. My mom and Aunt SuSu really enjoyed the little details and it made everyone in our party look a little closer to their surroundings.

Congratulations on your 15 year work anniversary! What a nice gift from your employer.

Love the scavenger hunt and thanks for sharing it!

We left WDW that day and I hope to post soon.

Thank you! I love the small business I work for and the people around me make it so amazing. As the office manager, I am the one who usually plans the appreciation for others, so it is always a nice surprise when they think of me I look forward to taking a peek at your trip report when you get it up. I love reading other trip reports because it gives me ideas on what we can do or try on our next trip!

 

[Cetta]

Wednesday, November 9
When we were planning this trip originally, Aunt Denise, Aunt SuSu, and Kathy planned on one Universal day on Monday and one Disney day on Wednesday for Magic Kingdom and park hopping to Epcot. I understand them paying for park hoppers at Disney because they each were paying for themselves. Me on the other hand, was paying for 3 adults and 2 kids! Plus my husband quit his job in August and was without a job for about a month and a half, so it was all on me. I explained to the kids that they could pick a park to go to and they both voted on Epcot. Sadie's two reasons were Frozen and Nemo. Joseph was just so set on riding Guardians and finally getting on Test Track. So I explained to the other adults that we would just see them when they park hopped to Epcot. Well this was the day the storm was starting so on Tuesday Disney announced that all the parks would be closing early due to the incoming storm. The other adults didn't want to go to the park on a rainy day while our family was pretty excited to be doing Disney in the rain...it makes for the best memories!
During my usual early morning wake up and go potty I purchased our Genie+ for the 5 of us. Then at 7am, I attempted to get a boarding group for Guardians....I was pretty nervous that I wouldn't get it but I was successful! Boarding group 21!! woohoo! Since we were a group of 5 calling the Uber...I was worried that we wouldn't be able to fit the scooter and stroller into the back. We made a last minute decision to ditch both and everyone was going to walk. Let's see how this goes....first time for my mom to be at a park without a scooter and first time both of my kids will not have a stroller to rest in....and we were planning on going til park close (granted that was 7pm due to the storm). We were outside waiting for our Uber by 8:30am.

Aaron rocking his Goofy had from 2009.
I had made us all shirts and worked really hard on them but I don't think we got pictures of us in it because we ended up wearing out ponchos most of the day. The shirts said:
Aaron - I'm here for the beers
Me - I'm here for the magic
Gramma - I'm here for the memories
Joseph - I'm here for the rides
Sadie - I'm here for the stuffies
As we were pulling onto the Disney property, I received a notification that our boarding group had been called. Wow! a little earlier than expected but that just meant we didn't need to travel back to the front of the park later on. No spoilers but Guardians was awesome! I think my favorite part was actually the preshow. Sadie needed some time after the ride to sit and rest because it does spin. The other day she did say to me "I liked the Guardians ride, but I don't think I want to go on that one again" After resting and then going through the gift shop there, we stopped at the coke Club Cool so the kids could try some of the sodas from around the globe....

Joseph's Beverly face:

We hit up Soarin(with a lightening lane), Living with the Land, and Figment. Then made our way over to one of Sadie's favorites of all time....NEMO!

After Nemo we decided that to head up to World Showcase because our Ratatouille LL was for 11:50 and I knew exactly where I wanted to eat beforehand.

I had read a trip report where they talked about the famous sandwich in France and I told my husband it was on my Disney Bucket list, and he agreed it sounded so good.

Aaron and I both got a sandwich each, the kids got some treats, and my mom got a baguette.
I wish I had one right now.

We still had some time before our LL time so we made out way through a couple countries. Aaron wanted another beer in America so he got that, the kids got this fancy slushie drink that I can't remember the name of while my mom got the version with alcohol. Sadie was sad in the picture because she wanted a pretzel....which I didn't hand to her right away.

We sat at a table...in the drizzling rain and enjoyed our beverages and snacks before heading back to France.

 

[Cetta]

I think it was about this time of the day where I suggested that the kids put on their flip flops since their feet were already soggy from all the rain. Let's see how they do with no stroller and in sandals lol. We stopped in Italy where my mom was very determined to get some Limoncello and Aaron wanted another beer (he was attempting to drink around the world lol). While they did that, the kids and I were in the giftshop. I noticed some Limoncello shirts and had Joseph go tell Gramma. She couldn't make up her mind on which one she wanted because she liked them all. She did eventually get a really cute one but I haven't seen her wear it yet, it was more of a summer shirt. Sadie got the shoulder plush of Pinocchio but she couldn't wear him because it was still raining outside. Earlier in the day, Joseph had seen a goofy hat while we were in Future World and had asked for it. I told him he had to wait and see if that was something he really wanted. Well he had been asking for hours and of course now, we couldn't find it. He wanted it because he wanted to be like dad but also liked that it was different than dad. I promised we would make our way back to Creations Shop after our LL for Ratatouille. Everyone was pretty excited to ride something new!

When we got off and made our way to the exit, we could see the downpour! We put on our ponchos and made our way to the Creations Shop so Joseph could get his goofy hat. Us ladies took a poncho photo...Sadie wasn't feeling the rain obviously.

Joseph was so happy to get a Goofy hat like his daddy. I had to take a picture of my two goofs!

There was a photopass photog and we did some fun poncho photos

We were looking forward to the magic in this magic shot but it never showed up. Anyone have an idea on who it would have been?

 

[Cetta]

Since we were in Future World we hit up Spaceship Earth

We made our way back to World Showcase to grab some tacos and then get on Frozen.

Aaron got a beer flight at some point that evening.

Since it was raining, I didn't take many pictures of our evening adventures. I know the kids were laughing and giggling in the rain and were having the best time in their ponchos.

Aaron took Joseph on Test Track while Sadie got another personal photosession with a disney photopass photog.

 

[Cetta]

After meeting back up and hearing about how amazing Test Track was I got some pictures of the giant golfball on our way out.

We stopped at another PhotoPass Cast Member for some more family pictures in our ponchos! Joseph wasn't having it lol

We took the Uber home and it rained most of the night. Fortunately it wasn't that bad of a storm.
Thursday, November 10
The next day was Thursday and we had planned to spend it at the pool but because of the hurricane/tropical storm, we played Uno most of the day. We enjoyed watching the palm trees sway in the winds and the squirrels run and climb the trees. We finally left the room later in the day and saw some more wildlife...turtles, ducks, crane, and some small fish.

that night, Aaron and I went to Disney Springs because it was supposed to be our date night, we didn't do much, I think we went in a couple shops and got our dole whips with rum before heading back to Sheraton Vistana to sit at the bar and have a couple more drinks....well he did, I had a coke lol

 

[davi]

Great trip report so far! Looks like you had a great time. What did you think about the Sheraton Vistana? I’m planning a trip and thinking about staying there.

 

[cgersic]

This is just STUNNING!!!

 

[fractal]

Great report - cracking me up! Love all the smiles and now I have to try that sandwich in France.

But can it be better than Golden Corral?

 

[Cetta]

Great trip report so far! Looks like you had a great time. What did you think about the Sheraton Vistana? I’m planning a trip and thinking about staying there.

We love the Sheraton Vistana! My husband and I have been joking about how it would be the perfect place to live. We could walk to the bar, restaurant, and pool. Or cook our own meals. It was pretty close to everything and the rooms were so spacious. I believe we stayed in the falls which was a two bedroom but our favorite part was drinking coffee on the screen porch in the morning. We Ubered everywhere with no problem. We love the double tree at universal for our universal trips and the Sheraton vistana for our Disney trips!
Here was a view from our screened in porch.

 

[Cetta]

Great report - cracking me up! Love all the smiles and now I have to try that sandwich in France.

But can it be better than Golden Corral?

thank you! the sandwich in France is amazing!!! Golden Corral is now a family joke hahaha we took the kids to an indoor water park in Southern Indiana for New Year's Eve and there was a Golden Corral that my husband pulled into the parking lot of and told us we were eating there. I almost started yelling at him before I realized it was a joke hahaha

 

[Cetta]

View attachment 693634
This is just STUNNING!!!

thank you! It's amazing what an iPhone can do hahaha I barely even know how to work the camera...just point and click!

 

[Cetta]

Friday, November 11
This is where the hurricane/tropical storm messed with our trip the most. The original plan was everyone go to a Disney park on Wednesday, swim on Thursday, and on Friday my mom would be able to spend the day with her sister at the resort while Aaron, the kids, and myself would go to Hollywood Studios. Since Aunt SuSu didn't use her Disney ticket on Wednesday, she was able to switch it to Friday but Disney put a hold on selling new tickets for Friday because they closed on Thursday so I was unable to get my mom a ticket to spend the day with her sister at a Disney park. My mom was stuck at the hotel all by herself while everyone else was able to go to the parks. I tried to convince my mom to just come with us and we would speak to Guest Services and see if they would allow her to get a ticket for the day. I felt like it was worth a try but she refused. She said that she had a belly ache and wanted to stay in the room.

At 5:13am I had purchased Genie Plus for the day at $19/person. We arrived at Hollywood Studios gates around 8:30am for the 9am opening. The kids enjoyed a breakfast snack while in line....Cheetos!

While I had been to Galaxy Edge twice and the kids have been once before, Aaron had never and was really looking forward to it. He is a big Star Wars fan and made sure our kids loved Star Wars as much as him. I'm sure I have mentioned this in a previous trip report but Joseph's first word was Boba and when he was a toddler he would sleep with his Little Golden Book of The Empire Strikes Back. At 7am, I had got our first LL for Smugglers Run and our goal was to rope drop Rise of the Resistance. We were in around 8:45am and took some pictures with the 50th anniversary statues of BB-8 and R2-D2

As you can see, they are still wearing their sandals and we did not bring a stroller!
We got in line for Rise and I think the wait was posted at 45 minutes. Took some pictures while waiting...the kids seem to like each other at this moment....won't last long I'm sure lol.

We kept the ride experience a secret from Aaron, so he didn't really have an idea of what it was like. He still talks about how he thought the shuttle part was the whole ride until the doors open up and the cast member is standing there with all the storm troopers behind them. He said it was an amazing experience to be captured by the First Order. This is his face after the ride...oh that smile!

Next stop was our LL for Smuggler's Run. I tried to grab some photos but they came out terrible. Joseph and Aaron were our pilots while Sadie and I were the gunners.

Aaron was on cloud 9!

 

[Cetta]

We had to get some photopass pictures with the Millenium Falcon!

Chewy walked by!

We stopped and grabbed some of the detenator bottles and enjoyed more of the snacks we had in our bag. This is probably my favorite picture from our trip of all of us together

Sadie looking beautiful!

We headed to Star Tours to complete our Star Wars adventure. This ride was probably one of the best highlights for Sadie during this trip....she was the REBEL SPY!!!! She still talks about it randomly "remember that time I was the rebel on that Star Wars ride." During our last trip Joseph made a Lightsaber at Tatooine Traders and Sadie requested one this time...she was having the best day ever at this point....rebel spy and a new lightsaber, she was one happy girl!

 

[Tiki Traveler]

We headed to Star Tours to complete our Star Wars adventure. This ride was probably one of the best highlights for Sadie during this trip....she was the REBEL SPY!!!! She still talks about it randomly "remember that time I was the rebel on that Star Wars ride." During our last trip Joseph made a Lightsaber at Tatooine Traders and Sadie requested one this time...she was having the best day ever at this point....rebel spy and a new lightsaber, she was one happy girl!

Being the rebel spy and a new lightsaber - Goals for us all!

 

[Cetta]

We watched Indiana Jones Stunt Show, took a selfie with the kids while Aaron grabbed cotton candy and a beer.

After the show we had lunch and then it was time for a ride on the Runaway Railway! Joseph has always loved The Rocketeer and was pretty happy to find this. We look a picture to send to Pop Pop because they always watch that movie together.

we decided to make our way into some shops (Don't exactly remember why) and when we walked out it was just before Santa's arrival.

This was our first snow of the day! We knew that the Frozen show was going to be starting soon so we made our way towards there. We had watched it in May 2021 and I knew that Sadie would want to see it again. On our way we saw Chip and Dale!

Sadie decided she wanted to sit on Aaron's lap during the Frozen show. I was shocked when I realized this show was different than what we had saw in May 2021. Apparently it was the first day of the Christmas version of the show so we were lucky to get to see Olaf!

Aaron said that he had very felt or seen Sadie clap as hard as she did during that show. Even Joseph was singing along!

Snow #2 for the day!

 

[Cetta]

After Frozen we stopped and got the all important Mickey Premium Bar!

I had to send pictures to my one coworker because the week before the trip he told Sadie to make sure she didn't eat them all because they were going for Christmas. She told him she would only save one and it was for his daughter lol So I sent a text and told him that there were none left.

We headed back into Galaxy's Edge and ran into a Storm Trooper.

We got more photos along the way!

The one where the kids are doing the force is Aaron's watch background and the one where they are pretending they love each other is my watch background. I love these photos!