Camping At Disney World 2018 - Days 1-3

How this trip came about:

1. We agreed to go to Walt Disney World in 2019 with our friends Holly and Brian and their three kids (see posts from our 2013 Disney trip with them starting here).
2. Todd and I have had a lot a fun camping recently and decided that the two of us would camp at Disney World and on the drives there and back.
3. Being not sure what camping and theme-parking at the same time would be like, and not wanting to combine that first-time experience/stress with traveling with another family, we decided to do a test run in 2018.
4. We invited my mom to come along.

On our first day we got an early start for our 8.5 hour drive and picked Mom up at her house.  We already had most of her gear and had packed it in the car the night before.  We got on the road and had an pleasant enough / uneventful drive to Buccaneer State Park in Waveland, Mississippi - our camp site for the night.

A drizzle around Baton Rouge

Buccaneer State Park sits on the Gulf of Mexico.  Almost completely destroyed by hurricane Katrina in 2005, it underwent an extensive 8-year renovation.

Vegas Wedding

My brother got married in April of 2018 to a really wonderful woman, and they decided to have the ceremony at a wedding chapel in Las Vegas.  Elvis was not involved.

We flew down the morning of the wedding and came back the next day, and stayed at the Park MGM hotel on the strip.  In the evening after the wedding, we all had dinner at Nine Fine Irishmen in New York-New York, walked around the Bellagio, then on to see Cirque du Soleil's Beatles LOVE show at the Mirage.  Fun times!

Creepy hotel hallways

Universal Orlando 2017 - Halloween Horror Nights, Day 5

On the last day of our trip I got up early as usual, so I went to breakfast at 7:45 while Todd slept in.

I ate in the Islands Dining Room in our hotel and after debating with myself ordered the Tahitian French Toast.  It was amazing, and I don't even like french toast that much.

I mean, just look at it

Progress

Back in the room at 9, showered, packed and checked out.  Our shuttle arrived at 9:40 to take us to the airport, and we flew home satisfied with a great trip (and stuffed with french toast!).

Universal Orlando 2017 - Halloween Horror Nights, Day 4

Continuing with the theme from the previous post, here's my notes from this day.

Left hotel at 10:10am. Poseidon. Jurassic Park lunch. Cheeseburger combo with fries and choc shake. Good. Ate on balcony looking out over park. Great location. Jurassic Park ride. King Kong. Aborted due to tech diff. Butterbeer fudge. Hogwarts train. Shopping. Hotel. Finnegan holding area at 4:15. Let out at 6. Shining queue. Shining = incredible!  10 min.  wait.  Dead waters.  Neat boat. 15 min. wait.  Doughnuts. Yuck. Scared on bridge by clown with chainsaw. The Hive 15min. wait.  Not good. Blumhouse. Pretty good. Scarecrow. 50 min. Good!  Simpson’s meat pizza. American horror story. 35 min. Very good. Starbucks. Once more around park. Hotel at 12 something I think. 

This was our last full day at the park and the night that we planned to attend Halloween Horror Nights.  So excited I could hurl!

Told you

Universal Orlando 2017 - Halloween Horror Nights, Day 3

Hello, I'm back.  Let's get to it.


In the interest of catching up, I'm skipping the narrative for a bit.  Here are my notes from this day of the trip:

Left hotel 10am. Universal Studios. 

Stores. ET. Apple fritter Lard Lad. Simpson’s ride. MIB. Gringotts.  Tales of beadle the bard. Bumblebee man chicken tacos and chicken nachos. Steve. Squirrels. Ice cream earl grey lavender. Hot day. Knockturn alley. Back to hotel for 1 1/2 hours. Islands of adventure. Harry Potter. Chocolate fudge. Train. Shopping. Hoodie, hat. No japanese brochures. Hotel. Shower. Jakes American bar at hotel. Apple gimlet. B-1 bomber burger. Delicious. Sweet potato fries. 

I wanted to get a Universal Studios park map/brochure in Japanese and was surprised that they don't print them in that language.  I have no idea to whom "Steve" refers.