Trip Report What Day was That Again?!: The Mostly Authorized Anthology of Doberge Trip Reports 2016-2022

Thank you to @Back!Elbow!Shoulders! and @Darstarr for the encouragement to write. Without double dog dares we'd still be recording our knowledge on cave walls, or at least that's a message I have taken away from Spaceship Earth. So here I am to record my knowledge on ... servers? Shouldn't take long, right?!

Admittedly in my long 3.5 years here at WDWMagic I've never put much attention on the Trip Report board but I've come around to reasoning that it'd be great to write about experiences to look back upon in the future. Every trip is special but now my memories have begun to run together and I struggle to remember which trip my daughter ran merrily through Adventureland with a bubblewand.

We had a recent trip in February 2023 but before getting to that in its own trip report I'm going to use this thread for mini trip reports of past trips before eventually getting into Princess Marathon Weekend 2023.

We're a family of 4. My wife, M, and I have been together since high school and married for 12 years. Our daughter, Slice O, is now 7.5 and son, Slice H, is now 4.5. H is Autistic and it's not something we learned until he was a out 3.5. One thing I'll try to document, if possible, is each kid's journey advancing through rides. O had a very traditional attraction progression and has now done every ride at WDW except Dinosaurs. She's also never done Hall of Presidents, but, please, hold your tomatoes. H is different and you'll see how certain attractions he LOVED as a toddler he later developed a fear of as a preschooler.

Before I begin I'd first like to thank the Phoenicians for creating an alphabet. And thank you also to Alphabet for creating Google Maps time lines that track me daily, Gmail for all of the Disney email receipts I never delete, Photos for not just picture storage but stored metadata timestamps, and Drive for keeping everything stored. Without all of that I'd have no chance trying to piece all of this together.

Now, let's geaux.

In Progress Links:
May 2016
[Next: February 2018]

 

[Doberge]

Before conversion to Mickeyism my wife and I had previously visited Universal Orlando in 2013 specifically for Harry Potter. Our first trip to Orlando as a family of 3 was in 2016 when O was about 10 months old. My brother's family and my parents rented a villa at Grand Cypress (r.i.p., villas). We couldn't swing the time off so we flew down after work on a Friday, May 21.

The Grand Cypress Villas were fantastic. There were 27 holes of golf surrounded by villas. Kinda similar to Saratoga Springs but with more fully grow foliage and way fewer people around. My parents really enjoyed it (we'd all stayed here before) because they brought kids to Orlando and kids could go to Disney while they enjoyed the Villas section, main resort section, and relaxation. Like Old Key West, the room entrances were on one side with parking in cul de sacs, and there were plenty of balconies and patios with resort views. Our villa was 3 or 4 bedrooms on two floors. It was a bit outdated but in hindsight they weren't putting money into it because a year or two later the Villas section shut down and is being built up as the Evermore Resort.

On Saturday we took O to Universal. Since O was so young and wouldn't remember anything we made the day more about the parents. Probably a good idea because it's since been about mostly kids. M and I do occasionally split up so one parent has kids and the other can, day, enjoy the EPCOT festival, but that's getting ahead of myself.

Back to our day at Universal. We bought our tickets through Undercover Tourist and because it was 2016 tickets had to be mailed or picked up. And picked up meant visiting a FedEx store that was apparently base of operations? I don't know, but we drove to the random FedEx store and then made our way to Universal. I believe this was the only trip I brought an actual diaper bag.

Photographic proof that I ever did Dad Things in Orlando:

I think I wore it better than Indy.

OK, maybe not.

Most of our time was spent between Potter lands and taking the Howgarts Express between. Universal with a baby was maybe even better than Disney with a baby. Universal's many family waiting areas at attractions were fantastic. With a baby they let us use the Express Pass lane and then one parent would wait in what was often an air conditioned room for families like ours doing the Universal equivalent of rider swap. It was great to have quiet indoor places rather than at Disney where parents are left more to fend for themselves outside the attraction.

On Sunday we had our first character breakfast at Garden Grove at the Swan Hotel with the rest of my family. Goofy, Pluto, Chip and Dale at a buffet with great prices. I don't think this has returned and that's too bad because it was a great character meal.

After breakfast we explored Swolphin and decided we'd stay here in the future (spoiler: we never have).

That afternoon we returned to Grand Cypress and the main resort to swim. The Hyatt pools were some of the best on any trip we've taken, maybe bested only by Stormalong Bay. Other Disney pools have nice features but the Hyatt pools are fantastic all around.

M had to fly back that Sunday night for Monday but I was off after the school semester had already ever so O and I stayed the night to ride back with my parents on Monday. After dropping M off at MCO, O and I visited Boardwalk. This is when I learned that ordinarily one needs a resort or dining reservation to park at Boardwalk. Security let us through regardless and we were able to park at Boardwalk.

This was my first "date night" with my daughter. We enjoyed the Boardwalk performers and grabbed dinner at Trattoria al Forno. I don't remember what I ate but I did conclude that the food was terrible and we've not been back for dinner.

After dinner we explored Boardwalk more while eyeing the friendship boats. I figured they were only for resort guests so we didn't attempt to ride. O started to get sleepy so I called it a night and went back to the parking lot. I quickly realized that I had no idea where I had parked in the huge Boardwalk parking lot.



After a lot of walking carrying a tired O I found the car and returned to the villa. This was O and M's first night apart and ... it was uneventful. Mom probably had a more difficult time than O. Our entire trip was very last minute so we didn't rent a crib or really even know renting baby equipment is a thing. O slept with me in bed, something that terrified my wife who was convinced I'd roll on top of baby O. I didn't and we both survived the night. On Monday we made the 10.5 ish hour drive back home.

On Deck: February 2018

 

[cgersic]

I completely agree about Universal vs Disney with rider swap. I just did UO with my niece who was pregnant at the time along with a 2 year old. She is a huge Potter fan and loved being able to stay in the queue and then hit the family areas while my sister and I completed the rides. I was very very impressed! We've done Disney multiple times with her kids and there is just no comparison. Loving the report!