Walt Disney World 2022 - Day 2: Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure

Up early to make the shuttle we hired (through Mears) to Universal in time for rope drop.  The parks were crowded but since we knew we only had one day to experience both parks we had shelled out in advance for the once-per-ride Express Pass.  Note that the Express pass is not good for the newest rides Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventures and Jurassic World VelociCoaster - you still have to wait in line for those.

Some of our group of eight opted for Hagrid's, but Todd and I did VelociCoaster.  Highlights of the day:  The Bourne Stuntacular live action/digital/projection uh-maze-ing! stunt show (YouTube videos did not compare to seeing it in person), and the coffee caramel from Sugarplum's Sweet Shop in Diagon Alley.

Omg that's a lot of people waiting to get in.  We're about in the middle of the pack.

VelociCoaster

Disney World Thanksgiving Camping Trip - Days 1 & 2: Road Trip

I suppose it's finally time to begin posts about our Thanksgiving trip to Disney World.  I suppose I've been delaying because it wasn't a very good trip, and in hindsight it would have been better to stay at home and spend Thanksgiving with our families.  I'm not advocating against traveling during a holiday, but this particular excursion was not worth it.  In the end, I'm glad we went the year prior on a camping practice run as it was a much better experience.

Our plan this time was to spend two days on the road going to Florida, stopping at a hotel in Pensacola for the night, then six days of camping at Disney World.  That would be followed by three days driving home with overnight camping at the same campgrounds from the previous year:  O'Leno State Park in Florida and Buccaneer State Park in Mississippi.

Apologies in advance for any typos - I'm competing with Selkie, one of our cats, for control of the keyboard.  That cat, there:

An older photo of the perpetrator taken after a hard day's work of stomping all over the keyboard

Now, on with the show.

Coming Soon

Just returned from a Thanksgiving! camping trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando.  I'll finish up (finally) the Big Bend posts then move on to Disney.  Stay tuned.

Camping At Disney World 2018 - Day 9

This was it - our last day on the road.  We got up early, shook off the cold, packed up camp and drove about 10hrs (with stops) to get home.

Blue skies are calling me home

"North 49, Mile 125"
Near Natchitoches (pronounced Nack-a-tish), Louisiana

We had a really great trip and I'm glad we got to go with Mom.  I think my biggest takeaways from this trip were:

• Disney World has become much more crowded.  It's true what they say that there really isn't a slow time or season anymore.  Just plan the best you can and be prepared to make the most of it.
• Camping and going to the park wasn't a problem at all.  True you can't really head back to your tent in the middle of the hot day to rest/take a nap, but if needed you could easily camp out in a comfy chair in the lobby of any of the myriad of hotels around the property.
• The hardest part of the trip, and the hardest to adjust to, was the temperature swing from the traveling phase of the trip to the destination portion.  Planning to camp in 80-90° weather is one thing, planning to camp in 30-40°, then 80-90°, then 30-40° again weather is something else.  It didn't help that our travel days ended up being colder than originally forecast, and our Disney days were hotter than they were predicted to be.  I suppose if we had an unlimited amount of space and could fully pack for both extremes it would have been more comfortable, but as it was we did the best with what we had.
• And that's it.  You can only learn 3 lessons from any given situation - additional enlightenment would just be ridiculous.

I'll circle back around to compare/contrast once we take the next trip with our friends.  Hope you enjoyed.

Camping At Disney World 2018 - Day 7

This was our last day at Disney World.  We got up, broke camp, cleaned up, and drove to the Reception Outpost to check out.  At checkout we confirmed that we could leave the car in the campground's overflow parking lot, which we did.  Then we caught the bus to Animal Kingdom.

We originally planned to spend a half-day this day at Hollywood Studios to bookend the half-day we had there when we arrived, but the night before we decided to go to Animal Kingdom again instead because we enjoy that park more (particularly the walk-through Maharajah Jungle Trek).  So off we went.

Tree of Life

Dinosaur, my favorite

Camping At Disney World 2018 - Day 6

Picking up where I left off...

We spent the next day at the Magic Kingdom where we had FastPasses for Space Mountain, Splash Mountain and Peter Pan, in that order.

It's easiest (in my opinion) to take the boat from campground to the Magic Kingdom, plus the scenery beats a bus ride.  We traveled to the campground boat launch and waited about 15-20 minutes for a boat.

Campground Christmas tree

The pier

Camping At Disney World 2018 - Day 5

Animal Kingdom was next on our agenda, and this would be our first time to experience Pandora - The World of Avatar.

Wildlife in the campground

Cardinal

Camping At Disney World 2018 - Day 4

The next day we went to Epcot and met our friend Jackie who lives in Orlando.  She's always gracious and spends a day with us when we come to Disney - good times!

This was the last day of the 2018 Food & Wine Festival so we spent the day eating around Epcot.  A lot.  We had done this a few years back at Disneyland's California Adventure and had a good time, so we were looking forward to it here at Disney World.

I can't find my festival passport at the moment, but even without it I can remember 2 clear standouts:  The Chateau Des Charmes Vidal Icewine, Niagara-on-the-Lake from the Canada pavilion (good), and the Croissant Doughnut with Chocolate and Marshmallows (bad).  To be fair the doughnut was probably good when it was fresh, but it was so, so stale when we ate it.

Not a lot of pictures from this day:

Todd waiting for the bus at the campgrounds

The Epcot entry plaza.  This is currently under renovation and the giant "Leave a Legacy" monoliths are being moved to open up the space more.

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.

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.

Universal Orlando 2017 - Halloween Horror Nights, Day 2

Universal is split up into two theme parks, a water park, and a shopping/dining district.  The theme parks are Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.  The Hogwarts Express links the parks if you have a park-to-park ticket allowing you to visit both parks on the same day.

On this day Jackie, our friend from Florida, met us at Islands of Adventure at 9am.  Whenever we visit the area she's always gracious enough to spend a day at the parks with us, and we always have a great time hanging out with her.  This day was no exception, and she even got soaked with us on the river raft ride: Popeye & Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges.

I'll spare you the play-by-play description and just share some highlights.

The start of a fun day

Universal Orlando 2017 - Halloween Horror Nights, Day 1

Hello again!  Hope you're doing well.

We had decided after our last trip to Universal Orlando in 2016 that we would go back in 2017 to experience Halloween Horror Nights, and we're really glad we did.

Hurricane Irma was a concern heading into this trip since it stormed through the area just days before our scheduled arrival, but it ended up not impacting our travel.  Hurricane Hermine blew through while we were at Universal the year before, so I guess this was just par for the course.

We landed in Orlando at 4:30, checked in at the Universal desk at the airport, then 5 minutes later we were on the shuttle van to our on-site hotel.  Our shuttle driver was great (didn't get his name), and the check in clerk Nadine-Marie at the hotel was terrific; a great experience overall.

Always have to take a cloud pic

Arriving at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort - one of the on-site hotels available at Universal

Pardon The Interruption

Just got back from a trip to Universal Orlando for Halloween Horror Nights.  Really fun and creepy!

I'll finish up the Grand Canyon posts after I recover.  See you then.

Soon

Universal Orlando Trip - Day 5: Going Home

All good things must come to an end, and so we had to bid farewell to Universal Orlando and the Loews Royal Pacific Resort.  It was hard too because we woke up to such a beautiful day:

Hard to leave, but it's gorgeous after days of rain and it's Saturday - crowds are sure to be out in full force.  Our timing seemed to work out perfectly.

Todd's in good spirits waiting for the shuttle to the airport

Just plane fun

Ha ha, made you laugh

Why is the window wet?  Adjust focus...

...oh crap.  What happened to the great weather?!
This looked a lot worse in person - like the hurricane had circled back around and was headed straight for us.  The plane took forever to taxi - we kept willing it to go faster.

Phew! - we beat the storm and weren't delayed.  It didn't take long to go from this...

...to this.  Then it was clear skies all the way home.

We had a great time.  Next time (next year?), we're planning on going during Halloween Horror Nights.  They were setting up some of the outdoor areas while we were there and it already looked amazing.  Can't wait!

Thanks for reading.  Coming up next:  South Dakota - so stick around, we'll be right back!  ;o)

Universal Orlando Trip - Day 4

Strong wind and rain overnight, but Hurricane Hermine ended up not being a threat for this area.  The only impact was that we'd have rain on and off throughout the day (which again was fine by us).

We woke up to heavy rain that stopped by the time we were ready to walk over to the park.  On the way over the path was strewn with palm leaves, mulch, and other natural detritus.  I also noticed for the first time these beautiful and alien plants - don't know what they are though:

I'll call you Audrey II

Amazing color

We started off with Universal Studios today, and then took the Hogwarts Express over to Islands of Adventure.

The sky doesn't look too stable

Universal Orlando Trip - Day 3

This was our Universal Studios day.  The park opened at 9am, but we weren't in any hurry and headed over around 10.  On the walk over I found a little friend on the underside of a leaf:

Hello little snail

But you'd rather see more about the park, wouldn't you?  Ok, here we go.

Universal Orlando Trip - Day 2, Part 2

Tip:  Always take a ziploc bag with you to a theme park - it's great to slip your phone/wallet into on water rides, and comes in super handy if it rains.  Also, you still need to wear sunscreen on overcast days.

After Jurassic Park, we continued on and came to the newest attraction at Universal, Skull Island: Reign of Kong.

Just like the Harry Potter area/rides, Skull Island gets extraordinary marks for theming.  On the outside it really looks foreboding with a huge weathered black wall covered with skulls, spears and torches, giant carved gorilla head (through which you enter) and mist-covered mountains rising in the distance.  Off to one side there's a huge temple with massive doors that open for the ride vehicles to pass through.

My current wallpaper

Just amazing from the outside

Universal Orlando Trip - Day 2, Part 1: Harry Potter and Jurassic Park

Today we set off for Islands of Adventure.  The park opened at 9am, but guests staying on-site get one hour early access to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter section - another perk of staying with Universal.

Fun with mirrors

Good morning Orlando