We are now a week out from a trip that I hope lives up to expectations.
We will be a party of 8, 3 adults over 30, and 5 niblings between the ages of 10 and 17. Its a short trip. We are going (early) Sunday morning to (late) Tuesday night.
Five of us have already been to Universal Orlando, but this will be a brand new experience for one sister, and the youngest niece and nephew.
We have two rooms at Hard Rock Hotel for the express pass, and super close distance to the park. My ankle is still not back to normal. I’ve rented a scooter, and my sister is willing to act as a scooter chauffeur for me.
I hope to write about all the prep for the trip, and post pictures of all the things I made.
So excited!! If you see me around, please, feel free to wave hello! We don’t have to interrupt each other plans or anything, but I love meeting everyone I talk to here regularly!
I waited soooo long to get this picture! I hadn’t been able to ever met Megatron after multiple attempts. Finally, I was passing by when it was his turn to come out. However, it was very windy that night. They can’t come out if they might wobble! I truly believe he wasn’t coming out that night, but I stood there soooo long and talked to the chaperones about how badly I wanted to meet him that he came out briefly!
Last trip with these people, I put together boxes for Jelly Beans and Chocolate frogs like you can find in the park, but this time, I’m all about portability. These will travel much better than delicate boxes I put together at the hotel on the last trip.
Less than twelve hours to go. I’ve done some final packing and did food prep (pizza, sandwiches, produce) and will be heading off to bed soon. I have alarms set for 3:00 AM to get up and head to the airport for a 6:20 flight to Orlando.
My flight is supposed to land at 8:55, and the rest of my party is supposed to land at 9:35. I hope to head to the hotel and check in before they get there. If I can I’ll check into both rooms. Otherwise i’ll see about exchange mobile tickets for ones that will fit into an ID holder on a lanyard. The mobile tickets are not too conducive to using with rides that require lockers. I will probably advise my family room key use because we do have express passes and will use them.
The day is going pretty good so far. I slept around four hours last night. Woke up are breakfast and went to airport. Small SNAFU in the direction of where to go but I got to the airport. Security was about 15 minutes and off to my gate.
I was B52 boarding number and one of the last ones on the plane but I got a seat near the wings when I asked the gight attendant if she was holding the aisle seat for anyone.
Once we landed luggage took about 30 minutes to get to the carousel. And I was leaving the airport the rest of my party landed.
Easy Uber trip to the hotel. I was allowed to check in for both rooms. I got all rooms keys and exchanged the mobile tickets for ones that fit in an ID card holder
I’m writing the rest of this trip report after coming back. The trip was Jan 29-31.
After I checked in and got everyones room keys, I took some time to get my lunch/some snacks/water into my park bag. Then I took my luggage to guest services and at the last minute grabbed my wand out of its box. I didn’t want to forget it, although I used it far less than I had intended.
With the luggage put away, I went to the vacation planning desk to exchange the mobile tickets from Orlando Informer to paper tickets that would fit into the ID holders I bought for people to hold their rooms keys and park tickets. The people who exchanged my tickets warned me the mobile tickets wouldn’t work anymore and advised me to take pictures of the tickets.
Everyone else came. They took some time to get some food out of packed suitcases (but not enough food) also they were under the impression that we’d get our room much earlier than we did, so that caused some hangry people later, but we managed. At this point, I headed to park with 3 nieces (13, 15, and 17) while the rest of the family, (2 sisters both sisters are older than me, but to differentiate between them i’ll call them “Older” and “Younger”, and nephews 10, 14) dealt with other things.
We were staying at Hard Rock so we could easily walk to the park. I deliberately had not picked up the scooter yet, because I didn’t want to deal with it. We just missed the water taxi, so we took the path through the butterfly garden to USO. This was my first time going through the garden as I didn’t want to try taking a scooter on the wood chip path.
First stop for us was to get more photo pass lanyards. They were $3 a piece, so the cheapest lanyards you’ll find in the parks. We linked them to my account. I wanted each sister to have one, as well as the oldest niece, so when people split up, each group would still have a pass. I had the girls pick out lanyards as my souvenir present to them, and because I didn’t have brought with me. As I was paying for the lanyards, my wand fell out and bounced on the ground. The reflective tip shattered, and I knew I would have to go to get it fixed.
Once that was done, we did minions while my sister went to guest services to get a disability pass/stroller as wheelchair pass for her son. Because we had express pass, we didn’t use the disability pass for many things.
The minions wait wasn’t too long. After that, sister was in queue for minions with the rest of the family. The girls wanted to do Race Through New York, so they did that while I waited for the others to complete minions. I grabbed a photo with the minion, and met everyone. Then everyone did race through new york. We did mummy next. ( I love this ride more than any other in the park. ) The family did fast and furious. While they were riding, I ducked into Diagon Alley to get my wand fixed. The TM asked if I had any sentimental connection to the wand, and I said no, whereupon they revealed that when they “fix” the wand, you get a new one.
Younger nephew and Older Sister loved the ride. I bought 3 Coke freestyle mugs (again that if we split up, each party would have a mug)
Sorry about the wand! That original box it came in will fit in a locker. When I carry mine with me I still bring it. When I’m playing with it, I holster it in the wand pocket of my robe. When going on rides Narcissa goes back in her box!
(Yes…Wands work better when you name them. Mine is Narcissa Malfoy’s model and we are both Ravenclaws too. I think it’s a pretty name so I kept it for the wand)
Looks like the rain is going to pass you by today! Yea!
I’m at the airport waiting for my flight home!
Have fun and if I can help you, please, @ me and I’ll jump in. I will be unavailable for the next 2+ hours as my flight boards soon!
