Trip Report Revisiting 2016's War and peace I took one for the team

Hello it's me again and if you want to know what the title means you'll have to stick around for a while. Sorry but no spoiler This trip was 3 years in the making and the official countdown started at 439 days. Surprisingly the time seemed to fly by. Our little adventure was taken by me (for those who don't know I'm Figmentfan423 Figgy to my friends here), my dh and our 2 boys James 14 and fellow Disney planner and M who's a bit older autistic and doesn't like getting his picture taken or me talking about him. Our trip began at

am on July 30th. We sang happy birthday to my little guy while driving down the street on our way to Disney. I'm a very mean mommy who made my baby spend his birthday in the car. Any way it was smooth sailing until half way through Virginia where we hit rain and traffic all the way to the North Carolina border. It was bad enough we worried a bit about making it to our hotel for the first night but once we hit NC the skies cleared and so did the traffic and we made it to Florida

to take the obligitory first Florida picture of the boys. With a bit of luck and excitement we made it to Ormond Beach to get a good night's sleep.

 

[epcotisbest]

Have fun! I hear's there's going to be a whole resort in Orlando.

It is on 192 west on the left out toward 429. We drove past it every day last week. From the size of the fenced in construction area, it is going to be huge. Supposed to have a resort with hotel, water park, retail, timeshares and private homes as well. Lots of grading going on there right now. There seems to be a revitalization on the west end of 192 with several new restaurants and shopping areas.

 

[Figgy1]

It is on 192 west on the left out toward 429. We drove past it every day last week. From the size of the fenced in construction area, it is going to be huge. Supposed to have a resort with hotel, water park, retail, timeshares and private homes as well. Lots of grading going on there right now. There seems to be a revitalization on the west end of 192 with several new restaurants and shopping areas.

I saw that. It looked like a large bulldozed piece of land when we drove by, I have high hopes it may be something to check out. That being said I hope it doesn't turn into a place for rowdies. When I was at Margaritaville is was a nice quiet crowd.

 

[Mr Ferret 75]

I saw that. It looked like a large bulldozed piece of land when we drove by, I have high hopes it may be something to check out. That being said I hope it doesn't turn into a place for rowdies. When I was at Margaritaville is was a nice quiet crowd.

And then Figgy turned up ...

 

[Figgy1]

And then Figgy turned up ...

 

[Mr Ferret 75]

[QUOTE="figmentfan423, post: 7406480, member: 86397"[/QUOTE]
Fixed it for you

 

[93boomer]

Yayyy caught up! Love the minion pix. My DH loves minions. He had my sister bring him one last year when she went to Uni. Good looking food!

 

[Figgy1]

Yayyy caught up! Love the minion pix. My DH loves minions. He had my sister bring him one last year when she went to Uni. Good looking food!

Thank you

 

[Figgy1]

Where were we? Oh yes the Horror Make Up Show. It was so much fun and funny. It's on my must do list to do it again someday! BTW the place has great A/C! The boys grabbed some popcorn and then they were thirsty so we headed into Diagon Alley for butterbeer and pumpkin juice. While we were there another spin on Gringott's (noticed a few little things yet again as there's so much detail.)

From there it was over to Mummy but we noticed some setting up for Halloween along the way

Mummy had almost no line so we rode that twice before getting on Shrek and Minnions before calling it a night. They were getting ready to throw us out any way!

 

[Figgy1]

Wednesday August 24th we got up early and finished getting everything into the car. We got almost everything into it the night before so it was only one bag the cooler and us. We headed off to Universal and only a few minutes after rope drop. Here's where my lists having lists payed off LOL. We split up that morning as we had been on all the rides and seen all the shows. The boys headed off to IOA ro Ride Kong and the coasters, Jim headed off to studios to ride MIB and do some shopping(he better have gone to the Irish shop or else LOL) and I headed off to Portofino passing through the Hard Rock hotel along the way. it was a nice coo but breezy morning and I wanted to get in a bit more resort hopping. It was as peaceful and as pretty as any place I've yet to find in Disney to just take a walk

 

[Songbird76]

We had dinner at the island Kitchen and it was great. Our server made some wonderful suggestions after finding out we're all gf. I started with a Golden Monkey and Jim got a crispin cider(how boring)View attachment 162236 View attachment 162237
At least I took notes LOL
Jim and my older ds got the Kung Pow Chicken, I got the stir fry veggie, rice noodle and tofu and James got the same except he got chicken. We also had an unexpected dinner guestView attachment 162238 View attachment 162239 View attachment 162239View attachment 162240 View attachment 162241 View attachment 162242

Oh that all looks sooooo good!! I love stir fry. Yum!

 

[Figgy1]

The Portofino was amazing from before I even got there the views were great!

Of course I had to check out the shops and it was like going through the pavillion at EPCOT only cheaper. After a bit of shopping and looking around I got a nice cup of coffee and just sat out in the sun taking in all the sights

 

[Figgy1]

The clouds started moving in so we all decided to meet back up at IOA but I snapped a few for you along the way

 

[Figgy1]

I had to ride cat in the hat again it was so well done! Then the boys dragged us on Hulk before the rain started LOL and of course just as we got done the skies let loose so Storm Force seemed fitting. The a quick spin on Spiderman. The park seemed almost empty today! It was really coming down by the time we got out so having a good excuse we all went to Margaritaville for lunch. I got It's 5 o'clock somewhere and Jim got a tranquil waters they were both yummy but I made the better choice. I got the veggie tacos, Jim and James got cheeseburgers in paradise(James sans cheese) and my older ds got a grilled chicken sandwich and they were all great! I really do think as much as my boys loved lunch their favorite part of the meal was the burping volcano

 

[Figgy1]

After lunch it stopped raining so it was back to IOA and we walked back to go on Jurassic Park, Forbidden Journey, Dragon Challenge and Hippogrith before taking the train to Diagon Alley.

 

[Figgy1]

While we were there James got this little girl

who will hopefully keep his ears clean and the dust bunnies at bay LOL Her name is Holly after the type of wood his wand is made of

 

[Figgy1]

From there it was back over to Mummy which my boys LOVE! Seriously where was everybody? A few shots of no crowd what so ever, YEA!!!!!

That last one was the one I could find with the most people in it

 

[Figgy1]

We managed to ride ET, MIB (twice) and Gringott's again along with grabbing a few last minute items before closing the park.

 

[Figgy1]

We were starving at this point! so we went to the mall at Millenia to PF Chang's. I got a coconut mojito and Jim got a glass of moscato. I got the veggie curry, James the chicken pad Thai. my older ds firecracker chicken and my Jim the beef and broccoli and we spit some stir fied spinach. It was all very good.

The boys were ready to fall asleep until the food came out and then they woke up!

 

[Figgy1]

For those that read my PTR you may remember we were going to go from checking out at the condo straight to Kennedy but had decided to stay in Orlando an extra night for 2 reasons. 1 the price, having an extra day in Orlando just in case would be a good idea and 3 rushing to Kennedy in the morning of check out is a bit too rushed. So we stayed at the Country Inn by UNI. 2 rooms, clean and the beds were comfy but I could have slept on a rock that night! sorry I was too tired and didn't get a pic.

 

[Figgy1]

Thursday August 25th Up at the crack of dawn to be at Kennedy before opening. The drive out of Orlando wasn't as sad as in past trips. Maybe because we really did get our must do list done and then some. A few extra ADRs and such. It's a good thing we got there a bit early because their ticketing system was down and they had to use a calculator to know how much to charge. To make matters worse we get discounted tickets and they had to figure that in. It only took a few extra minutes but it seemed like forever. A few shots on the way in`