Originally Posted By stitchcrazy Wednesday After working a full 8 hour day at work which required coming in 2 hours early and getting up at the crack of dawn I headed back home to hop from my car into my in-laws car who were nice enough to take us to the airport. My father-in-law nearly killed us all in a major car accident en route to airport. Not good. I think all our lives flashed before our lives. He was moving into a lane without looking and a car moved into the same lane at the same time. I was on the side where we almost hit and I swear it seemed like there was like an inch between the cars, YIKES! We arrived an hour before flight which had me worried but then our flight was late anyway. Got to Atlanta just in time to get on connecting flight - again scary! Landed in Orlando at 11 pm. Thankfully bags also all arrived. Called my best friend and found out Jordin won American Idol, things were off to a good start. Got lost trying to find Rodeway Inn International in I Drive, found Bahama Breeze instead and had late dinner and favorite margarita Bahamarita featuring extra shot hanging off side of margarita glass. Yum. Promptly forgot all travelling stress. Finally found hotel around 1 am. Hotel smelled terrible and had a number of weirdos wandering around. Went to bed, woke up and left glad to be gone. For $44 we got what we paid for and it was a place to sleep. At least it seemed reasonably clean. Thursday Got to Royal Pacific at Universal and went to check in just to get room keys so we could do their Universal Express (like Disney's FastPass only there you have to stay at one of their 3 hotels or buy it to get it) and were shocked to actually get our room! At 9 am! Woohoo! Went to Universal then to Islands of Adventure. I enjoy both parks, there's just not many rides I do at Islands of Adventure. Everest at Animal Kingdom is about my coaster limit before I get too "pukey" and even that one sometimes will throw me for an unexpected loop. Luckily with the Express pass Kevin could go on all the rides quickly and it wasn't hard for me to wait 5-10 minutes per ride for him to be done. Took a midday break and changed into our swimsuits to go on the 3 water rides at Islands of Adventure which is especially nice for riding the Popeye ride...definitely a soaker. Went back to the hotel again, got cleaned up and had dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp. We'd eaten there in February and Kevin fell in love with their "Boat Trash". I had liked it in February but this time they changed the steak they offered (I don't eat seafood) and it was fatty and gross. Sad day. But Kevin liked his boat trash again so that was all I cared about. Friday Got up and went to Islands of Adventure and Universal again. Only stayed till about 1 pm. Because then it was time to head to DISNEY! Checked in around 2 at Riverside and our room was ready. Unpacked finally all our luggage, I hate sifting through bags and like just unpacking it all when possible. Drove over to Publix and got water, soda and a few snacks and unloaded all that. Hopped in the pool at Riverside which was so busy. Also I was bummed that while we hadn't seen many "love bugs" over at Universal there were tons more by Disney. But after my trip with my Mom in October where they were EVERYWHERE they still weren't that bad. Friday night we had dinner at Boma. We love Boma. YUM. Before dinner we had drinks at Victoria Falls lounge where we had GREAT service! In the 4 stays we've done at Animal Kingdom Lodge we've always had terrible luck at that bar. Just mean and rude bartenders. This time our bartender was great, such a nice guy and made good drinks too. When we left Kevin walked his tip over to him and thanked him and said we'd previously had some bum experiences there and how one great person like that can really make a difference. Dinner started off weird as we were sat squished between two existing tables. One table left fairly soon after and our waiter immediately came over and moved their tables back, apparently they had moved them and that's how we ended up squashed. He was very good as well and it was nice of him to help give us more room right away. Normally I wouldn't mind but I was the one squeezing my booty between the tables to get out to the buffet line so it was especially uncomfortable for me. But like I said the waiter fixed that right away and everything else was wonderful as usual. Dessert for me is always the highlight and I had my fill of zebra domes plus one of our first dinners there I started putting their chocolate mousse on the backs of their chocolate chip cookies. YUM YUM YUM! Saturday We woke up bright and early Saturday to get to Animal Kingdom by 8 am for morning extra magic hours. In the end we rode Everest twice and did one safari and decided to move on. We only had Saturday for 3 of the 4 parks and we wanted to get in what we really wanted to get in. I would've liked to have seen Nemo again but it just wasn't meant to be for this trip. Plus by my 2nd Everest ride I didn't feel so great, something about that 2nd ride got me all discombobulated! Our safari was great! We joked it was the baby animal version...a baby giraffe and elephant were very close to the ride vehicles and I got some great pictures. Next we were off for Epcot. I love love love the Flower and Garden festival. We took our time walking through the park and enjoying everything the F&G festival had to offer and did Soarin, Spaceship Earth and Gran Fiesta Tour in Mexico. I like the new version of the boat ride, its very cute. I miss the obnoxious song. I'm probably the only one who does...I know Kevin was leaping for joy pretty much to have it gone! Went back to the hotel to rest up and get cleaned up. Kevin went for a walk and came back to report that the pool was obnoxiously full so we decided to check out the quiet pool right outside our building. The water was freezing, filthy (dead bugs, leaves etc) and also full of kids. We lasted about 10 minutes. We headed back to Epcot and enjoyed Test Track, Soarin, Maelstrom, a 2nd Gran Fiesta Tour and Illuminations. Immediately following Illuminations we decided to try out the walk from Epcot to MGM to catch the 10:30 showing of Fantasmic. It was a looooong walk. At least considering we'd been on our feet all day it was a long walk. But it was good exercise and we made it in plenty of time to see Fantasmic and felt quick proud for getting two closing shows in on the same day. Sunday Sunday was our only real "sleep in" day which for us meant we were up around 9:30. We headed for the Magic Kingdom and took the first bus to Epcot (we wanted to come in on the monorail) where we bought one day passes as we'd finally run out of days on our most recent park hopper tickets. So we caught the next monorail and headed in. It was a busy day so we only got in Laugh Floor Comedy Club, Pirates, Splash and Big Thunder before deciding to break for the afternoon and come back late for evening EMH. I know Laugh Floor has been getting some negative feedback but I'm a cornball and my hubby is too and we found it cute and entertaining enough. Not something we'd do twice in the same day but we'll most likely make a point to see it on most trips. After sitting down at Muddy Rivers bar at the pool at Riverside for a nice frozen drink I realized...we had a lot of time before we needed to think about getting back to Magic Kingdom, why not hit a water park?! I love how easy one can decide these things while at WDW! We ran back to the room looked and saw it was only 2 hours before the water parks closed but figured we never stay long at water parks anyways so why not. We hopped in the rental car and by 4:30 we were floating on the lazy river at Blizzard Beach! A couple rides later we were back in the lazy river at 6 when the park closed and we headed back to get cleaned up and enjoy the late night at MK. Sunday night was still busy but the later it got the less the crowds. We watched Wishes from behind the castle, this was a first for us. And really neat! Not something I'd recommend for your first time seeing it but cool if you've seen it a few times and want a new view point. We did another ride on Big Thunder and got first car for the first time which was fun! Also squeezed in SpectroMagic, Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan, Buzz, Jungle Cruise (featuring the most obnoxious JC boat driver EVER blech!) and two trips on the TTA and headed back around 1:30 am. Didn't quite make it till 2 am close but close! Monday Monday we slept in as late as we could while still being able to get out by 11 am. We packed everything back up and took one last look around before leaving. At Universal we'd bought their 7 day 2 park deal so while I hate ending anywhere other than Disney and originally we were going to go back to Downtown and shop and see a movie, Kevin talked me into going back to Universal. What a difference not having the Express pass made! We were there for over 4 hours and barely got in Jurassic Park, Earthquake, Men In Black and E.T. But at least it got me a little past my blues of our Disney park time being over. We headed back out again just after 4 pm and had plenty of time to get gas, drop off the rental car at the airport, check our bags and wait to head back to good old Milwaukee. Overall it was a great trip. Going between Universal and Disney always makes for interesting comparisons and contrasts. I always side with Disney in the end but this trip Kevin felt like he had a better time at Universal at least from a crowds perspective. But we also usually travel in the off season when there's a lot less people all around. Plus at Universal it helped having their Express Pass from staying onsite. So the countdown timer resets and now I just have to wait till our yearly December trip for my next Disney fix!
Originally Posted By stitchcrazy Thanks smedley! I definitely had a great time. For anyone who's into pictures here's my random collection of pix from this trip: <a href="http://tinyurl.com/2ho8sj" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/2ho8sj</a>
Originally Posted By sun-n-fun We almost stayed at that Rodeway in Feb. Glad we changed our minds!!!! Sounds like a great trip. 60 days to go for us!!
Originally Posted By stitchcrazy sun-n-fun I think the Rodeway was fine for what we had to do, flying in late at night and just going to bed and then cleaning up and leaving first thing but if we had stayed more than that I think I would've been disappointed! Actually in that very same area we stayed back in February at the Clarion Universal which was only a little bit more rate wise and much nicer. I think we paid $60 on discount as opposed to the discounted $44 we paid at the Rodeway. 60 days will be here and gone before you know it!
Originally Posted By stitchcrazy You too smedley! 162 days might seem long now but it will be here soon!
