Trip Report July 26 through August 8, 2008

Hello everyone!

Like some have done before, I thought I would start my trip report to WDW before I go and finish it up when I return. I'm starting it now because I know I won't have time later this week.

My family consists of myself, Male 43, my wife 45, and my two daughters ages 8 and 10. This will be me and my wife's 5th trip and my kid's 2nd trip back to WDW. We last visited last summer, this is our first back to back WDW vacation and we probably won't return for a few years after.

Our vacation will start on Saturday, July 26th and we will return home on August 8th. We'll be driving down and back in our 2006 Chrysler Town & Country touring minivan.

On this trip my wife and I will be celebrating our 21st wedding anniversary.

We decided to make an effort to finally visit Universal this time, we've never been, and we will do SeaWorld as well, before we do WDW. It is the fact that we haven't visited Universal before that we are justifying our return to WDW again so soon, not that anyone needs to have a reason, my wife's idea.

On the first day we're going to drive south starting at 5:00 AM from northern Illinois to just south of Chicago through Indiana, Kentucky Tennessee and stop in northern Georgia overnight. Sunday morning we then will continue south and take the bypass around Atlanta to avoid the road construction that is going on downtown and continue south through Georgia into Florida. We plan on being on Universal's property mid to late afternoon Sunday before 6:00PM, hopefully earlier. We have reservations at the Portofino Bay Hotel, we requested a bay view room. We are staying on Universal's property for 4 nights, we want to do both Universal parks and SeaWorld. If we have time we'll do other diversions we don't normally get to do, pool time for the kids, shopping and other such frivolities around Orlando proper. We'll also do some resting up around the hotel before embarking on our WDW adventure, because that is one thing we won't be doing once we get there. We don't have a real plan as far as which parks we'll do when, probably SeaWorld last. We like to plan but we also like a little spontaneity as well.

We will leave Portofino on Thursday morning 7/31/08 and check into the Contemporary resort early, before noon if possible. We requested an MK view, on a higher floor. We have ADRs for Chef Mickey's that morning, the last seating time. We haven't done Chef Mickeys since 1987.
We plan on hitting MK that first day with no real itinerary, I would like to hit the Haunted Mansion imeadiately because I missed it last year due to the refurbishment and haven't rode it since 1990, but my kids have never seen it before and I want them to experience it the same way I did for the first time as a kid in 1973, at night, I'm a sentimental fool, I guess.

The next day August 1st is our Anniversary and as I mentioned we're staying at the Contemporary, which was our honeymoon hotel 21 years before. When we made the reservations last summer the person we talked to said we could request the same room we stayed in then, but that isn't important to us, so we didn't request it. We will do MK on this day as well, we have ADRs for dinner at CRT for our anniversary, not necessarily me and my wife's first choice, our kids wanted to do it. We decided to celebrate our anniversary as a family instead of just as a couple. There will be plenty of opportunities to do the couple thing when the kids are grown and out of the house. We will do MK again on our last day before going home, too depressing not to.

We plan on hitting MK, Epcot, AK and DHS on their late EMH days, my wife has written down the days, we'll have to check to make sure they don't change, I think as the days fall we won't be able to do late EMH at DHS, I don't remember. One thing, we will be doing less TS dining than we did last time. We wasted a lot of time sitting in restaurants last year.

That's the general plan, we have been preparing for this trip since last July. We are now about 95% packed thanks to my wife. The only thing left is my stuff. I had the van cleaned out, washed and waxed and had the oil changed.

Our trip is only 7 days away and the pressure is on. It seems I've been counting the days and it's here all of a sudden! Just yesterday I remember it being 368 days away! My wife has been cleaning the house and I have to mow the lawn one last time, if it ever stops raining, it's raining now as I write this.

I've been preparing things at work, I'm at work now. I've been ordering extra supplies and delegating some of my responsibilites so my absence won't be too keenly felt. Being away from work for two weeks is not something I normally do, it does make it worse coming back. Not only will everything be piled on my desk and my computer filled with unread emails but being in the zombie state that first day back is a killer. I'll try not to think about it and let that foul day worry about itself for now!

I'm really looking forward to this vacation. We did the awkward "first time back in 17 years" last year and got through most of the new stuff that we never experienced. Our touring, I anticipate, will be better this time around. Our kids have matured a bit more and since this trip is not a surprise to them I've been coaching them about the rides they were too scared to try last time and the new ones they'll see at Universal. I think they may want to try some of them, we'll see. If not, I won't push them too hard, but I really think being more ready this time they'll want to do more. They're adamant that they won't do ToT, they won't negotiate on that one for sure, disappointing, but not unexpected, after the "freak out" they had last year when my wife and I did the swap thing in line and they thought they were going to ride, despite our reassurances that they weren't. They also told me most certainly they are not doing Dr. Doom's fearfall either.

I'll continue to add to this post before we go if I have anything else to report, otherwise I'll add what happened when I return.

Thanks for reading in advance!

 

[KingStefan]

Hello everyone!
...
On this trip my wife and I will be celebrating our 21st wedding anniversary.

We decided to make an effort to finally visit Universal this time, we've never been, and we will do SeaWorld as well, before we do WDW. It is the fact that we haven't visited Universal before that we are justifying our return to WDW again so soon, not that anyone needs to have a reason, my wife's idea.
...

Happy Anniversary!

We've also been thinking about Universal the next trip. We have some older non-expiring Disneyworld Park Hopper entitlements to use - I think one park day, and four plus options (water parks, etc.). I thought we would combine that with some Universal days.

...When he returned we talked a bit about the detail of our drive down and he asked when we were leaving. I told him we planned to go at 5:00 AM Saturday morning. My wife interupted and corrected me and said that we were leaving at 3:00 AM. I looked at her as if she was joking, seriously thinking she was. When she reiterated I became confused. She told me that her and the kids had decided they wanted to leave earlier and that was that, but since I was the driver it was up to me if it was too early.

Now, I'm no wimp when it comes to sleep deprivation, but I was taken aback by the females in my life suddenly telling me they didn't need sleep, since I'm the only one in the house who doesn't get enough of it!

I made the argument that leaving at 3:00 AM means getting up a lot earlier, sure, we can have the van packed the previous day, but just getting herself and the kids ready to go is a marathon. I can get showered, teeth brushed, dressed and out the door in 20 minutes if need be. My wife and daughters are another matter, they would need to get up at 1:00 AM to get out by 3:00 AM minimum, and we probably still wouldn't get out the door until 4:00 AM!

She thought about it and said maybe they would consider leaving at 4:00 AM instead. As of now it is still in the air as to when we're taking off, I still say we'd be lucky to leave by 5:00 AM. That was our goal last year and we weren't on the road until 8:30 AM!:brick:...

You're family sounds just like mine! It's funny - almost the same makeup, too! DW 40 something, DDs 14 and 10. Me - too old.

I can never figure out why it takes us so long to get out the door. It doesn't seem to matter whether we completely pack the car the night before, plan to put the kids right in the car (in PJs or have them sleep in their travel clothes) or what. It still takes us two hours to get going. Of course, I end up standing in the hall asking if there's anything I can do to help, and I get yelled at for rushing everyone.

By the way, you can now have your mail stopped online:
https://holdmail.usps.com/duns/HoldMail.jsp
I almost paniced when we were about to leave on vacation a few weeks ago (Quebec for the 400th anniversary of the city - great time!), because I forgot to stop the mail, and there was no time, and then I discovered this (I don't like to do it by phone). Worked great for me.

So have a magical trip! It looks like you have everything pretty well figured out.

If I can make a suggestion, though: It will still be pretty busy during the time you are there, and I see that you are really excited about HM - and I understand, because it was down for refurb the last time we were there, too. However, Thu July 31 is still going to be really busy, and if you are checking into the Contemp late morning an doing Chef Mickey's an THEN going to the MK, I'd warn you to anticipate large crowd levels.

This means if you go straight to HM, you'll have a long wait. Maybe not, but hey, I'm the kind of guy who likes to anticipate possible problems and have alternative ideas in mind.

Maybe try HM, and if the wait is long - especially if it's hot - save it for another time. A good crowded afternoon plan for me is to fastpass jungle cruise, then do Tiki room, Country Bears, (return for JC at fastpass time), Swiss family treehouse, Riverboat, Hall of Presidents, then (depending on your preferences) PhilharMagic (if the wait is not long), Stich, Monster's Inc., TTA, COP. Keep checking HM to see what the wait times are.

A better time for HM would be first thing in the morning. It seems like you are planning late mornings, and that's fine. We did that on our last trip (not by choice - our plane was delayed and we arrived like 7 hours late at 4AM and never got back on schedule) and it worked out fine. But if you could do one MK day really early - EMH or rope drop, I think that might work out better for you at this time of year. On busy days, we usually are the first through the gates, and hit Space Mountain, Snow While, Peter Pan, IASW, HM, FP Splash, Thunder Mt., POC, and ride Splash all in 2-3 hours at most and then go back to the hotel and swim or take a nap.

Anyway, just my thoughts. Everyone has their own opinion about this sort of thing.

I really enjoyed reading your pre-trip report! I really hope you and your family have a magical trip!

 

[JustPlainBill]

Happy Anniversary!

We've also been thinking about Universal the next trip. We have some older non-expiring Disneyworld Park Hopper entitlements to use - I think one park day, and four plus options (water parks, etc.). I thought we would combine that with some Universal days.



You're family sounds just like mine! It's funny - almost the same makeup, too! DW 40 something, DDs 14 and 10. Me - too old.

I can never figure out why it takes us so long to get out the door. It doesn't seem to matter whether we completely pack the car the night before, plan to put the kids right in the car (in PJs or have them sleep in their travel clothes) or what. It still takes us two hours to get going. Of course, I end up standing in the hall asking if there's anything I can do to help, and I get yelled at for rushing everyone.

By the way, you can now have your mail stopped online:
https://holdmail.usps.com/duns/HoldMail.jsp
I almost paniced when we were about to leave on vacation a few weeks ago (Quebec for the 400th anniversary of the city - great time!), because I forgot to stop the mail, and there was no time, and then I discovered this (I don't like to do it by phone). Worked great for me.

So have a magical trip! It looks like you have everything pretty well figured out.

If I can make a suggestion, though: It will still be pretty busy during the time you are there, and I see that you are really excited about HM - and I understand, because it was down for refurb the last time we were there, too. However, Thu July 31 is still going to be really busy, and if you are checking into the Contemp late morning an doing Chef Mickey's an THEN going to the MK, I'd warn you to anticipate large crowd levels.

This means if you go straight to HM, you'll have a long wait. Maybe not, but hey, I'm the kind of guy who likes to anticipate possible problems and have alternative ideas in mind.

Maybe try HM, and if the wait is long - especially if it's hot - save it for another time. A good crowded afternoon plan for me is to fastpass jungle cruise, then do Tiki room, Country Bears, (return for JC at fastpass time), Swiss family treehouse, Riverboat, Hall of Presidents, then (depending on your preferences) PhilharMagic (if the wait is not long), Stich, Monster's Inc., TTA, COP. Keep checking HM to see what the wait times are.

A better time for HM would be first thing in the morning. It seems like you are planning late mornings, and that's fine. We did that on our last trip (not by choice - our plane was delayed and we arrived like 7 hours late at 4AM and never got back on schedule) and it worked out fine. But if you could do one MK day really early - EMH or rope drop, I think that might work out better for you at this time of year. On busy days, we usually are the first through the gates, and hit Space Mountain, Snow While, Peter Pan, IASW, HM, FP Splash, Thunder Mt., POC, and ride Splash all in 2-3 hours at most and then go back to the hotel and swim or take a nap.

Anyway, just my thoughts. Everyone has their own opinion about this sort of thing.

I really enjoyed reading your pre-trip report! I really hope you and your family have a magical trip!

Thanks!
It is funny...My wife says she's going to put the kids hair in braids so she won't have to brush their hair out, and she's going to put them to bed in the clothes they're going to wear in the car. That takes care of them but she hasn't told me what she's going to do for herself. She tells me not to worry about her, that she'll be ready.
It will be great if we could get out of the Chicago area before the sun comes up. We're not driving through the city itself, I-80/94 south of the city is always a mess going into Indiana, even on a Saturday. Last year we wasted an hour in traffic alone at that location. Leaving at 3:00 AM would put us on that road at about 4:15 to 4:30 AM, which should give us nothing but open road to I-65.

When it was just my wife and I there was never a problem getting to the parks early. I was shocked last year how late we were arriving, I had to let it go or I'd have gone crazy! I guess I'm just admitting defeat early to lessen the disappointment.

Thanks for the information and advice as well.

 

[JustPlainBill]

Just slightly under two days to go before we leave. Here is when I start to second guess everything we've planned. Did we choose the right hotel, with the construction going on? Should we be even going to Universal/SeaWorld at all? Have we made the right ADR's at the right times at the right places? Should we even be going now, should we have spaced out our return to WDW a couple of years? Nothing too serious, just passing thoughts. Not that I can really do anything about it now, which is probably why it pops into my thoughts and nags me.

Naturally, at work things are falling apart just before I go, so having to let go and place the problems into someone else's hands is a real test for me. Everybody has my cell phone number, but we all try not to bother each other when we are on vacation, just a consideration. In order to allow for that kind of "consideration" you have to make sure you set up the people you leave behind well. No matter how much I try to make my last week at work as relaxing as possible, each time it's always the same, hectic, busy and stressful! It does make me appreciate this vacation even more, as I said once I'm on vacation, that's it, I won't think about work at all. 4:45 PM CST this Friday, I'm outta here!

It looks like we are going to try to get on the road between 3:00-4:00 this Saturday morning, which will get us to our overnight hotel stopover a little sooner than originally planned. This is when I think I should have planned to stop further south. I guess it's best to leave it, just in case something goes wrong, no sense to push it if I already allowed two days travel. I plan on driving 11 hours the first day and a little over 8 hours on Sunday. I'm the only driver so that is about what I can tolerate before my body begins to rebel. These times don't include rest stop breaks or construction traffic jams we may encounter. We don't plan on stopping at any restaurants along the way, we're bringing a couple of coolers with food and we'll stop at a restaurant near the hotel we're staying over night. Hopefully the drive will be as uneventful as it was last year.

My wife said that our oldest daughter wants to watch a Hanna Montana 3-D show that supposed to be on Saturday night on the Disney channel. She picked up the 3-D glasses at our local Walmart last week. I told her that I didn't even know if the hotel we're staying at overnight has the Disney Channel? We're staying at a Holiday Inn Express, I'm guessing they probably do have it.

I'm going to pack the van after I get home tonight as much as I can, leaving Friday evening open to do any last minute stuff, so I can turn in early, hopefully fall asleep and Saturday all we have to do is lock up and leave.

I'm going to muddle through today, and try to fly below the radar...Where is Saturday, will it ever get here?

 

[JustPlainBill]

Less than 18 hours to go before we're on the road, if all goes as planned.
I was successful in getting the van all loaded last night, everything is loaded and strategically placed. I hooked up my father-in-law's GPS and played with it to get more familiar with the options. The only real thing left is to is grab the last minute stuff and pack the cooler.

As I was packing the van my wife was getting worried that there wouldn't be enough room for all the bags. I assured her that there would be room enough to spare, we're bringing less than last year.

My wife has scheduled me to vaccum the house when I get home from work today. I need to clean the exterior windows on the van, very dusty from sitting in the garage since I last had it washed.

Everybody at work on my last day is wishing me well and telling me to have fun. I know their jealous, and would gladly trade places if they could, I know I would be. It has been an especially busy year for us. We put out a lot of fires, and had some very high stress moments and worked a ton of overtime. I really feel this vacation is highly earned. We're finally just now starting to see a slow down in our orders. One of our biggest customers just experienced a take over so we suspect they're trying to reduce their inventories, which is typical in such situations having been through that wringer at my last job.

It's going to be an early night tonight. The fridge is just about empty, we're having pizza for dinner tonight and we will bring any with that may be leftover. I'll knock back a couple of glasses of wine to relax and ease the pre-vacation jitters. That will help me to fall asleep, no need to get drowsy while driving.

I will try to sign off here before we leave, if I have time, I anticipate having at least 30 minutes of peace before the hammer falls.

 

[SchultzFamily]

Less than 18 hours to go before we're on the road, if all goes as planned.
I was successful in getting the van all loaded last night, everything is loaded and strategically placed. I hooked up my father-in-law's GPS and played with it to get more familiar with the options. The only real thing left is to is grab the last minute stuff and pack the cooler.

As I was packing the van my wife was getting worried that there wouldn't be enough room for all the bags. I assured her that there would be room enough to spare, we're bringing less than last year.

My wife has scheduled me to vaccum the house when I get home from work today. I need to clean the exterior windows on the van, very dusty from sitting in the garage since I last had it washed.

Everybody at work on my last day is wishing me well and telling me to have fun. I know their jealous, and would gladly trade places if they could, I know I would be. It has been an especially busy year for us. We put out a lot of fires, and had some very high stress moments and worked a ton of overtime. I really feel this vacation is highly earned. We're finally just now starting to see a slow down in our orders. One of our biggest customers just experienced a take over so we suspect they're trying to reduce their inventories, which is typical in such situations having been through that wringer at my last job.

It's going to be an early night tonight. The fridge is just about empty, we're having pizza for dinner tonight and we will bring any with that may be leftover. I'll knock back a couple of glasses of wine to relax and ease the pre-vacation jitters. That will help me to fall asleep, no need to get drowsy while driving.

I will try to sign off here before we leave, if I have time, I anticipate having at least 30 minutes of peace before the hammer falls.

So close!!!! Have a safe journey and a magical vacation once you are at Disney. Can't wait to read your trip report when you get back. And I'll be sure to lift that beer to you on Sunday at the Cubs game. :wave:

 

[JustPlainBill]

So close!!!! Have a safe journey and a magical vacation once you are at Disney. Can't wait to read your trip report when you get back. And I'll be sure to lift that beer to you on Sunday at the Cubs game. :wave:

Thanks, and I'll raise mine to all of you at the Biergarten!
It's 2:00 AM CST, I'm the only one up as I feared. My wife blinked first before I turned in and said maybe 3:00 AM is too early and 4:00 would be better. I'm going to start making some noise and get these lazy people out of bed so we can get this show on the road. I would like to be south of Gary IN before the sun shows his face, we'll see. I'll report back and tell you how it all went.
See you then!

 

[KingStefan]

Bill, I know you probably won't see this until you return, but I'm wishing you a magical time anyway. I just got back from a fabulous weekend in the vicinity of Ocean City, NJ, where I didn't have a computer, so I'm just catching up on your pre-trip posts now. Good luck and God bless!

 

[tink68]

Hope you all have a great vacation and a safe drive. Let us know how it all went. We are staying at the Contemporary in October also so I would really like to know how your stay is and how the construction is coming along there. Thanks and have fun! :wave: Sheri

 

[KnK]

i waved from the house on Saturday morning! Did ya see?

 

[JustPlainBill]

Just got back Friday night, still recovering from post vacation stress disorder. Spent most of yesterday unpacking and being debriefed by family we left behind. Going through the piles of mail, I discovered an unpleasant suprise, I've been summoned for jury duty for September 2nd. I'll be spending most of today catching up on yard work.

Before I get into details, I have to say, if there is a decline in attendance at WDW this year because of gas prices I certainly didn't notice it, The parks were usually packed with people. Wait times for the attractions seemed to be the same as last year with some minor variations.

The drive down the first day went well, we got out at about 5:30 AM CST which was about 30 minutes late, better than the year before. We would have got out on time but a problem developed with the automatic door for the van and I was monkeying with it longer than I should have. There is still a problem so I'll have to get it to the dealer, since it's still under warrenty. In all the excitement my wife forgot to mail a bill she had in her purse so I had to make a diversion to a local post office so we could drop it off in the overnight box. The drive through Illinois and Indiana was good it seemed as we got further south the driving habits of the other drivers we encountered on the road became worse, mostly through southern Kentucky and Tennessee. Not wanting to really single out any particuliar state but most of those bad drivers had Tennessee plates. Not wanting to offend those good Tennessee drivers out there, of course.

We stayed overnight in Ringgold GA at the Holiday Inn Express. Very nice hotel, about $95 a night, very clean. The only problem was we had a room at the back of the hotel and there was a band playing at a local bar or restaurant that we could hear though our closed window. At first I thought the music was coming from the hotel pool below, but it was too loud to be a radio. It was Saturday night so the noise continued until about 1:00 or 2:00 AM, I didn't get much sleep.

The rest of the drive through GA was good, the bypass around Atlanta went well. As we got closer to Orlando the weather began to change dramatically. At least 3 or 4 times we ran into huge thunderstorms. You'd be driving in bright sunshine then BAM! It was like someone was dumping buckets of water on you, I could barely see. A lot of drivers put their hazard lights on or pulled over to the side of the road. I could barely see the tail lights of the car ahead, as long as I could see them I could continue on. Then a short few minutes, bright sunshine again.

We got to the Portofino Bay resort on Universal's property in the mid afternoon on Sunday July 27th, a very beautiful hotel. There was a lot of confusion trying to figure out where to park, not wanting valet parking. After having the valet unload our bags from the van he gave me instructions on where to go. You have to pay for parking there, the charge seemed to cheapen the experience of staying in a luxury hotel. I parked the van in an attached parking garage on the 2nd level and took the elevator up to the lobby. Our adventure began!

I'll continue on with more later.

 

[JustPlainBill]

i waved from the house on Saturday morning! Did ya see?

I thought I saw something, I wasn't sure so I waved back anyway!:animwink:

 

[WickedQueen22]

Somehow I missed this entire thread :shrug:

Can't wait to read the rest and see some pictures!! Glad you made it home safely.

 

[SchultzFamily]

Welcome back. Looking forward to reading the rest of your report and seeing the pictures. 21 days left for us...and I've been updating our pre-trip report.

 

[DMC-12]

Welcome back, Bill! :sohappy::sohappy:

Looking forward to the rest of your trip report.

/side note/ yes, agreed... the further South you go... the driving habits of the other drivers tend to get pretty scary. :lol::lookaroun

 

[JustPlainBill]

Hello again everyone, just got out of the shower after doing yard work all day, glad to get that done.

I made an error on my second to last post it wasn't the cars with Tennessee plates that had the worst drivers, it was the ones with Florida plates, sorry to the people from Tennessee. I did see some Florida drivers that were driving safely by the way.

Anyway...Sunday, July 27th about 4:30 PM EST we checked into the Portofino Bay Hotel. Our first impression of the hotel was great, the whole lobby was in marble. When we checked in our room wasn't ready, we asked if our room had a balcony. It didn't but they made an accommodation to move us to a room that had one. Since that room wasn't ready yet either, the front desk told us they would call us on our cell phone when the room was ready, it would only be a few minutes he said. I thought that was great but I was suspicious that I would not get a call, they looked fairly busy, and I have yet to have any hotel call me when my room was ready, never happened before.

Anyway, we cruised the hotel and looked around. It was very hot, we were all sweaty and felt lousy after the long drive with little sleep, we just wanted to get into our room after about an hour my initial suspicions were aroused that I was not going to get a call. We went to the Universal desk to pick up our park tickets. The layout of the Portofino is very confusing, at least at first. To get to the piazza from the lobby you take an elevator down three floors, there is no 2nd floor???

We went back to the lobby, I approached the front desk to inquire about our room, I lied and said my phone rang but I didn't answer it in time so I was wondering if it was them telling me our room was ready. The man looked into his computer and became agitated. He confronted another man at the front desk who originally helped us and they were speaking very fast in italian, looking like the were trying to solve a problem. After a few more minutes the man was very apologetic. He said the room was not ready yet and that he was moving us to another room with a balcony that was ready now. He gave us free room service vouchers for our trouble, which was not expected. We got our new room keys and went to bell services to tell them to bring our luggage up that was put into storage.

The bellman that helped us was great, I don't remember his name but he told us he was from Morocco. As we made our way to our room, which was a journey, he asked us questions about where we were from and he told us a bit about himself. He told us that when he first came to America from Morocco he first settled in Chicago.

Our room is on the top floor, the dark building. The light colored stone railing is our balcony.

This is the view from our balcony.

After settling in our room a large thunderstorm came through and rained very hard a few hours. As my wife unpacked I went back to the van to retrieve a few items we left behind. I had to go down 5 floors, walk to the lobby building, take an elevator up 3 floors, exit out the front and walk to the parking garage elevator and went down to the third level. I walked over to where I thought I left my van and discovered it was not there. I looked around and checked my bearings. I looked to be in the right spot, but the spot where I left my van was empty. I panicked briefly, thinking my van was either stolen or towed away. Then I realized I was on the third level and I parked on the second level. On the second level I found our van and I was relieved. It was hotter than heck in that garage, I was sweating terribly, I forgot how hot it was in Florida. As I made it back to my room I spoke with another bellman in the elevator as the storm raged outside. He told me that the storms had become quite regular. Not really just storms but hurricane-like he described it. He said it rained like this everyday for at least two months, not normal he described. That didn't bode well for our vacation it seemed at the time.

We spent the rest of the evening in our room and exploring the hotel after the rain stopped at about 8:00 PM. We got carry out from the pizza place on the piazza and brought it back to our room and turned in.

The following pics are of the lobby of the Portofino:






More later.

 

[JustPlainBill]

I wanted to post a few more pics:

My two daughters feeding the ducks just off the piazza by the bay, a ritual they practiced every morning.



These are the baby ducks my kids became particuliarly attached to.



Another view from our balcony looking opposite the piazza. You can see the dock where we took the launch to City Walk/Universal/Islands of Adventure and the walkway to the same beyond which we took once.

More later!

 

[MicheleK]

My family and I LOVE Portafino's, I hope you enjoyed it as much as we do . Once you get the layout of the hotel, it's pretty easy to get around. My kids love the pool there. We ate at Mama Della's when we went there (very good, but quite pricey, a nice treat). Of course one of the best parts of staying on property at Universal are the room keys. We love the fact that we can do both parks in one day and also ride our favorite rides multiple times with no wait.

Can't wait to hear more about your trip. :wave:

 

[KnK]

I thought I saw something, I wasn't sure so I waved back anyway!:animwink:

So glad I was able to brighten the trip!:wave:

 

[DMC-12]

Lucky! Nice balcony.... & nice view from said balcony!

 

[JustPlainBill]

Monday morning, July 28th we attempted to take the launch to Universal's Citywalk. A launch had just left so we thought it might be better to walk, so we did. It was a longer walk than we anticipated and I noticed two launches passed us up while we walked, so unless you want the extra excercise it is better to wait for the next launch, in my opinion.

Before going on I'd like to say that if you have the means and you want to go do Universal, stay at a Universal resort hotel, it's worth it, if just for the express pass you get. We never waited in a line on any attraction. Every one was a walk on, and unlike the ones you can purchase you can use it on every attraction over and over. This saved us a lot of time standing in line.

We had never been to Universal before so everything was new to us, we had the awkward orientation thing to deal with the first few hours. We knew the hot new ride was Simpsons, so that was the first one we went to. At the time we didn't know how the express pass was going to work, had we known ahead of time we would of saved ourselves the hurried walk across the entire park the opposite side from where the entrance was and done the ride when we got to it.

We showed the ride attendent our express passes and he let us into a separate entrance, it took only a minute to get to the load area. We were lined up based on the amount of people in your party. You see various scenes in the queue area, simpson's characters acting like carnival barkers, saying and doing silly things. The ride is based on a Krusty the Clown amusement park that is tampered with by Side Show Bob who's mission is to kill everyone. This ride was an instant favorite with my family, nicely done and fun. We rode again right after, my stomach started hurting soon into the 2nd ride, which I thought was odd. At first I thought I must be getting old for a simulator ride to affect me so, then I realized I only had coffee for breakfast and it has that affect on me when I don't eat.

After Simpson's we went on Men in Black, (a shooting gallery ride) not a bad ride but it didn't do much for me, out of my family I had the highest score.

We then went on Jaws. My youngest started fretting about being too scared to ride. I explained to her what I thought the ride was about based on information I've read. I told her that if she went on I would hold her hand throughout the ride. She agreed to give it a try, as long as I promised to hold her hand.
I thought the ride was rather tame to my standards, it looked it's age, I noticed stress cracks in the shark at the corners of the mouth from it's constant opening and closing. I had never been on the ride before so I guess I was expecting something different or better. Nobody got wet in our boat, though I've heard of people getting drenched. They drove us through the attraction pretty fast so there was no time to build up any anticipation. The one thing I noticed was anytime the shark appeared, it gave out this awful high pitched scream/screech. I know sharks don't give off this sound, so it must have been added to increase the scare factor, it is unsettling if not irritating after the first few times.

We ate at Brody's chicken after Jaws and split fried chicken and fish & chips. Not bad food, Ok for counter service.

We then did Disaster, an ok ride much like disaster canyon without the backlot tour attached.

We next did Terminator, Shrek 4-D and Jimmy Neutron. The kids loved the latter so we did it twice. The Shrek movie is the same as the one that came out on DVD a few years ago, so that was a bit of a disappointment.

We next did Twister, ET, the Horror Make up Show, and Animal Actors show. The make up show was funny and some of the demonstations upset my kids more than I thought they would, even though the cutting and bleeding was fake and explained afterwards, they were still shaken up a bit, nothing too serious though.

The kids played a bit at Woody Woodpeckers Kid's zone.

We also toured the shops and saw the Lucy tribute.

We ate dinner at the Monster cafe, not a bad place to eat, could have been themed up more though.

We saw the Universal 360 firework show, then we called it a day and took the launch back to Portofino.

Before closing out this day I want to add that at Universal Studios, I was very impressed with the look of the place, I thought they excelled in their interpretation of what Hollywood looks like, shop fronts, cars, atmosphere and such. Their New York street area is very good as well. I really got the feel. The attractions I felt were good overall. The employees at Universal were very friendly, at least to me and my family, very informative and helpful. I was expecting Universal to have a "Six Flags" feel to it, but it wasn't like that at all, I was impressed. My overall impression of Universal was great. They're doing a great job. After visiting Universal, Disney's Hollywood Studios afterwards kind of paled in comparison, on those specific fronts.
The next day we did Universal's Islands of Adventure.
More to come!