Trip Report We are venturing outside our comfort zones and hoping the reward is worth it!! April 11 -23, 2021

Hello! I am, again, going to attempt to do a semi livish trip report and then fill in the details when I return. Like Rapunzel, when we made these plans, I definitely was taking a leap a faith! I, like all of us, have had a long year. We are DVC members and it was time to use the points. It is that simple. I can't tell you how thrilled I am now!

The cast remains the same! Den (my husband), Deighton(me), Hunter (16), Camden (9), and Brinley (5 and starts kindergarten in the fall). Some of us are a lot taller and some of us wider...

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We fly Southwest out of Pittsburgh early Sunday morning and land in Orlando around 10:15am.( I feel like I struck gold with 2 nonstop flights!) Then we head to the home where animals belong, a one bedroom villa at Animal Kingdom Lodge until April 19th. Then we move to Cabana Bay Beach Resort until the 23rd. Universal is a whole new world for us. Any advice for the entire length of stay is welcome!

I will be posting our plans soon! Thanks for reading! Another big thank you to those of you who posted, happy, positive thoughts and reports during these crazy times. It definitely kept time moving forward and hope alive. It keeps me smiling and tearing up to see your children growing up on this platform! Happy Thursday everyone!!
 
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littleroo

littleroo

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Songbird76 said:
I'm curious about how the lockers are working right now. When we were there, it was CHAOS. Everyone rushing to their lockers to get their stuff after the ride, everyone rushing to get a locker BEFORE the ride...for Forbidden Journey, I had to wait a while to get a locker because they were all in use. And there were SO many people it was super crowded. I'm wondering how they avoid the busy with no disntancing issue right now?
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The lockers were not crowded but the parks were not crowded! Today is a very different! It is busy! I will let you know this evening!
 
littleroo

littleroo

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Today is the one day that Hunter was allowed to take off and do Islands of Adventure. After taking an hour to get here from start to finish (it usually takes 10 minutes) we raced back to the Forbidden Journey! Here are some pictures I took of Suessland along the way!
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Songbird76

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
EngineerMom said:
I am really surprised you were told to put them in the seat pocket in front of you as there is no pocket. Hubby wears cargo pants so he can put things in there and I wear a ***** pack. When the ride first opened they made me put the ***** pack in the locker but they don't now. Hulk even has a metal detector to make sure EVERYTHING is out of your pockets. (son rides that)

I am a big baby so when it came to something like Forbidden Journey I did a bit of research before. I knew it was a robotic arm and would be wild. I got off the 1st time and Hubby and daughter got right back in line. My son who didn't like dark rides at the time didn't want to do it again. Next trip I couldn't believe I was getting on it again. But as I said I have done it a bunch at this time and when I get tipped upside down I tend to scream but I can handle it. This last trip the ride stopped but we were not in a bad spot. I did say well I would not be happy if I was upside down.
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The putting glasses in the pocket thing was on a sign somewhere in the queue. I don't remember exactly what part of the queue, but I do remember thinking that if they'd have said something, I'd have left the glasses in the locker with my bag. I had already taken a much smaller bag than I did in Disney, because I didn't need as much. We stayed at Royal Pacific to get the express passes included, and that was walking distance to the parks, and I had a lanyard for my ticket and express pass, and my credit card. My eyes aren't really very bad, so really the glasses we more for reading signs that were in the distance, so I'd have been fine without them. But once we got to the loading area, I realized there was no seating in front of you, so there was no pocket and I wondered why the sign had said to place glasses and loose items in the seat in front of you. The other issue we had was the refillable cups...they don't fit in the smaller lockers unless to lay them down, so they need to be empty before you get to the lockers.

I had seen pictures of the ride vehicle, and I had even watched videos of ride throughs, but it's completely different when you are actually IN the seat and it's moving. I thought it was done with screens, and didn't know the seat actually moved. My husband the engineer was telling my son that he didn't think they could make the seat move and it would probably be kind of like star tours. He was wrong.
 
littleroo

littleroo

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We just had a heck of an ordeal on FOP! Brin, again was upset that she couldn't go on the ride. A cast member asked what was wrong. We told her. She measured her and said she is tall enough! Great! Right? Wrong? We all couldn't go on because we had a backpack so they treated us like child swap and the boys went on. Brin and I stayed back. When our turn came a new cast member was there! Brin was denied and she exploded!! I don't condone temper tantrums but she was heart broken. A lead came to talk to us and apologized profusely. If it could get any worse the ride broke down!! It is still down! They game us 15 express passes.
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Songbird76

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
littleroo said:
We got a late start! I mean hours late! Cam and I were up at midnight watching the last 2 episodes of friends🤣 The alarm went off at 6am and no one moved. Oh well it is vacation. We just waited half an hour in a very long line to get on the bus! Can anyone say banana?View attachment 550926
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How was the transportation from Cabana Bay? We stayed at Royal Pacific, so we just walked except we took a boat one day just to have the experience. But we had to take a bus to Volcano Bay and back and that was a MESS. They shared a bus with one other resort from volcano bay, and the person loading the buses was telling people which resorts, but a bunch of people weren't paying attention and got on the bus, not realizing the bus didn't even go to their resort. And we had the. grouchiest. driver. ever! We had just checked in, so it was our very first thing we did and we didn't know what the bus area looked like, so we asked the bus driver to let us know when we were at Royal Pacific so we could get out and she said she didn't even know. You don't know where you are supposed to stop?? She apparently didn't know the names of the resorts, just knew the route and where to stop. We were fortunate that some other people on the bus knew what they were doing and they helped us.
 
Songbird76

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
littleroo said:
We just had a heck of an ordeal on FOP! Brin, again was upset that she couldn't go on the ride. A cast member asked what was wrong. We told her. She measured her and said she is tall enough! Great! Right? Wrong? We all couldn't go on because we had a backpack so they treated us like child swap and the boys went on. Brin and I stayed back. When our turn came a new cast member was there! Brin was denied and she exploded!! I don't condone temper tantrums but she was heart broken. A lead came to talk to us and apologized profusely. If it could get any worse the ride broke down!! It is still down! They game us 15 express passes. View attachment 550951View attachment 550953View attachment 550954
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Oh no!!! So she still didn't get to ride it? Or did they end up letting her in the end? Poor girl must have been crushed after getting her hopes up like that. No wonder she exploded!!
 
ShookieJones

ShookieJones

We need time for things to happen.
TheMouseFan said:
Glad to hear you enjoyed Big Fire! We have a reservation there in July and I am so excited to try it!

I totally agree about Volcano Bay! I am not a water park person and absolutely fell in love with VB! We also loved the Fearless River.
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Yes, Big Fire was a huge hit with all of us. If you did mesquite/smoked foods, you're going to love this place.
With that being said,
  • The server convinced me into getting the fried chicken and I LOVED it.
  • My son's a vegetarian and they had this banging cauliflower steak with shio peppers and he LOVED it.

Volcano Bay was sooo much fun, Oh and that water coaster was unreal too! They really nailed it. I would go as far as to say that it may be giving TL a run for it's money. ;)

From what I've read the designer of the park was a former Imagineer and the original plans were for "Lava Lagoon" intended for DLP.
Don't go spreading that info though...because I could be off on a couple of those details. :D
 
ShookieJones

ShookieJones

We need time for things to happen.
littleroo said:
We got a late start! I mean hours late! Cam and I were up at midnight watching the last 2 episodes of friends🤣 The alarm went off at 6am and no one moved. Oh well it is vacation. We just waited half an hour in a very long line to get on the bus! Can anyone say banana?View attachment 550926
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This reminds me of that episode of the Middle. So stress inducing waking up late. With that being said, you guys are absolutely crushing it so far, so a couple of hours isn't going to be a factor! Get after it!
 
ShookieJones

ShookieJones

We need time for things to happen.
littleroo said:
We just had a heck of an ordeal on FOP! Brin, again was upset that she couldn't go on the ride. A cast member asked what was wrong. We told her. She measured her and said she is tall enough! Great! Right? Wrong? We all couldn't go on because we had a backpack so they treated us like child swap and the boys went on. Brin and I stayed back. When our turn came a new cast member was there! Brin was denied and she exploded!! I don't condone temper tantrums but she was heart broken. A lead came to talk to us and apologized profusely. If it could get any worse the ride broke down!! It is still down! They game us 15 express passes. View attachment 550951View attachment 550953View attachment 550954
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I am not a fan of temper tantrums either..BUT honestly I may have been down for a little kicking and screaming after that! LOL
That stinks for sure, but it sounds like the Team Member Lead did right by you guys, and let's face if you're going to have problems, these are 'good' problems to have.
 
littleroo

littleroo

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
ShookieJones said:
I am not a fan of temper tantrums either..BUT honestly I may have been down for a little kicking and screaming after that! LOL
That stinks for sure, but it sounds like the Team Member Lead did right by you guys, and let's face if you're going to have problems, these are 'good' problems to have.
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I completely agree! We are lucky to be on vacation for 2 weeks during a pandemic!! Safety is always a priority!
 

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