I know, I know, I’m crossing lines into the other parks with the title. Our main focus of this trip is all things Harry Potter and Star wars, starting with Harry Potter, but calling it a Harry Solo Trip Report just sounded… wrong.
Anyway… Some background- I’m a long time luker, occasional poster. This trip has been in the works since March of last year when I was getting tired of winter in Maine and not traveling. I researched and made a budget for a split stay between UOR and WDW figured out how many hours I’d need to work at my per diem job to cover it, and realized it was doable! And just to torture myself, I figured out how many telemedicine visits that would take to pay for it all - 984 if anyone is interested. I ran it by my husband who gave me the standard “just tell me where to be and when” answer whenever I talk about travel, and we were on!
This will be our 2nd WDW visit as a family and our first time to UOR. Our last trip was 5 years ago. We have me, DH, DD11 and DD16. I work in an Urgent Care and DH is a first responder, we really need some time away. We fly out at 5:45 am, and will be heading 2 hours south once the girls are out of school to stay near the airport tonight. I did not want to make 2 grumpy teen/tweens get up at 2 am to start our day tomorrow. I’m looking forward to some warmer weather, it was a balmy -22 degrees F this morning when I took the girls to school.
This will probably be more of a daily recap rather than live report, but thanks for following along!
Most importantly, THANK YOU for the work you and DH do as health care workers. You are the best of us! Enjoy your well-deserved trip. Great idea to focus on HP and SW.
Funny how the rigorous trip planners and these people seem to find and marry each other.
Ahhh, I’m enjoying this trip report already! We are also 2 hours away from our closest airport and try to take the earliest flight available to maximize our FL time. And, I live in a cold snowy place. So, I can’t wait to follow along. Oh, and my DH is a just show up person too Many thanks to you and your husband for your work in healthcare during these very trying times.
Nope, not joking. That was over 8 months. They’re short appointments, and I am scheduled 6 per hour in 4-6 hour blocks. Every time I complained about work, my kids would remind me I was working so we can go to Disney.
Up at 3:30 for our flight. Pros if staying near the airport- 5 minute drive to get to parking. Cons- we heard every plane taking off and landing because they all flew right over us.
So excited for your trip! Have fun Harry & Solo are the best parts of both parks these days. And thank you for doing what you do as healthcare workers the last few years.
We landed at MCO without any issues. I reserved quicksilver for rides, since we’ll need the 3 way transport. Note to anyone scheduling a towncar- if you have more than 3 full size suitcases they won’t fit. I didn’t think of that and the driver had to use bungee cords to hold the trunk shut I’m guessing since he had them, we’re not the first people to run into this.
We arrived to HRH around noon after a quick publix stop. Everyone was hangry, so we had lunch at the Kitchen. The lunch menu was limited but everyone found something they liked.
So this afternoon was a tale of my plans versus what really happened.
The plan was swimming and a nap by the pool followed by dinner at Cowfish and exploring Hogsmade and Diagon Alley.
What really happened is the pool was closed due to weather- FYI the water slide closes if its under 60, pool closes if it’s under 50 and the pool deck is closed if it’s less than 45. We wandered to City Walk then went in IOA. DH was questioning the benefit of the express passes while waiting in the line for the Seuss Trolly and kept saying ‘it was just the regular line’. After 5 minutes and climbing a few flights of stairs we were on the ride. Then he saw the regular line and admitted the passes might be helpful
After that was Hogsmade which was packed. DD11 got a bit pale and had a stomach ache from motion sickness (and maybe eating butter beer icecream and being overtired) and decided she didn’t want to ride anything else.
Our room was ready at 4:30 and we ended up having pizza in the room and the girls were in bed by 7. Hopefully some sleep will help for tomorrow!
good to know for future reference!
Many thanks to you and your husband for your work in healthcare during these very trying times.
