Saturday, January 28, 2012

Universal Studios & Arriving at Walt Disney World

The night before, we noticed we had a message on the phone and Andrew had tried to retrieve it without success.  After breakfast, I called the operator and asked what the message was.  They said they had tried to deliver a package to us but couldn’t because we had the Do Not Disturb sign on the door the entire day before.  They asked if I wanted it delivered, and I said yes they could deliver it now.

We waited about 15 minutes, then decided to go grab some food.  The continental breakfast at the 7^th floor concierge had butter bagels, donuts, chocolate croissants and other small items to satisfy our tummies at the start of the day.  It wasn’t much of a spread, but it was enough to get us going.

We came back to the room and we still had no package.  I called the operator again, and tried to ask them who had sent the package.  She told me that someone had sent us a gift and that it was going to be delivered.  After some coaxing, she finally told me it was champagne and strawberries, but refused to say who it was from.  We waited around a while longer and still nobody showed up with the delivery.  I sent a text to my sister who declined sending the package.  We had to check out by 11:00am and it was quickly approaching time for us to leave the room.  I called the operator back and told them we were checking out, and that whomever sent this mystery package would just have to lose out.  She finally told me it was the hotel staff who sent it to us as an anniversary gift.  She then told me that it couldn’t be delivered until after 11:00am due to the hotel regulations about alcohol.  I told her to forget it, and we checked out of our room, angry at the hotel for wasting our time.

Our luggage was checked with the bell desk and we were finally on our way to Universal Studios.  We quickly discovered that this Saturday morning was much busier than we anticipated due to a children’s marathon that was going on nearby.  We made it to the park and rode Shrek 4D, which is a motion ride with extra sensations of things like water sprays and odors.

Rip Ride Rockit

From there, we rode Revenge of the Mummy which I loved!  It’s an indoor roller coaster that stops, turns, launches and is a blast to ride.  We had used our Express Pass and walked right onto it.  Afterwards, Andrew braved Rip Ride Rockit where he got to choose his own music to listen to during the ride.  He chose Daft Punk’s Harder, Better, Faster Stronger to jam to.  The ride has a crazy vertical lift and straight drop down.  He felt the lap belt was too constricting across his stomach and the handles were difficult to hold onto.

We went back to ride Revenge of the Mummy a second time and walked right onto it again.  Then we got in line for Disaster and waited for about 15 minutes to see it.  They have added a lot of humor to the experience and it was enjoyable.  We used our Express Pass again to ride Men in Black, and ended up waiting over 30 minutes although the queue said it was a 15-minute wait.  What we discovered was very disheartening – when the park is slow with low crowd levels, Universal only brings in half the staff to run it and they shut down half the ride.  This means that no matter how many people are in the queue, you still wait the same amount of time because only half the cars are being released with guests.  To say the least, this really upset me.  We watched as car after car left completely empty from the ride on the left side, as they half-filled cars on the right side very inefficiently.

Empty Universal Studios

At the food court, I picked up some chicken parmesan with a breadstick while Andrew decided upon the sweet and sour chicken dish.  It was cheap food, but we got what we paid for.  It was definitely not the tasty food we experienced at WWoHP the day before.  We went from lunch to ride ET which I enjoyed.  It was a different concept to have the ride vehicle going over top of the scenery.  Then we got in line for the Simpsons using our Express Pass and still waited 20 minutes.  The group behind us was very loud and obnoxious.  The show was funny and impressive overall; Andrew liked it better than Back to the Future.

By this time, our adventures were already wearing on me and I was still feeling ill from all the motion I had experienced.  We stopped to watch Terminator 2 3D and I actually fell asleep during it, which Andrew couldn’t believe.  I was tired already, and this was only day 3.

We decided to leave Universal Studios and walk back to Islands of Adventure to visit WWoHP a third time.  It was around 2pm on a Saturday, and the crowds were evident even though it was the slowest weekend of the year.  I waited in a line of 25 people to get two more Butterbeers from the Hog’s Head bar while Andrew rode in the single rider line for The Forbidden Journey.  The standard line wait was about 75 minutes, but he only waited 20 minutes in the single rider line, which is a shortcut that leads directly to the Gryffindor common room.

After he finished the ride, he came to join me at the Hog’s Head where I had a Butterbeer waiting for him at the bar.  We then made another stop at Honeydukes for another Lightening Bolt Shaped Rice Crispy Treat, and Andrew picked up some Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans for his teammates at work.  We left Hogsmeade and tried to take a shortcut out of the park but ended up back tracking through Jurassic Park instead of going through Marvel.  We didn’t have enough time to wait to ride Spiderman again because our limo was coming for us.

Limo Ride to Disney

We left Islands of Adventure and walked back to the Royal Pacific Resort for the final time.  Andrew picked up our luggage from the Bell Desk while I called the limo service to discover our limo driver was already waiting for us outside.  Although we were 30 minutes early, he picked us up and we were on our way to Walt Disney World.

The limo left a lot to be desired.  The driver, although friendly, didn’t speak English very well.  There were sodas and water for us to drink.  The fancy inside track lights didn’t show up because it was too bright outside for us to see the colors.  The seat was ripped in the back, the door handle had missing pieces and somebody had left a random empty spool of ribbon on the floor.  About ¾ of the way to Walt Disney World, the air conditioning not only stopped working, but the heat came on full blast for some reason and we were quickly miserable.

I scooted up to ask the driver if he had turned on the heat.  We had a language barrier, but I’m pretty sure he said he didn’t turn it on and that the controls were in the back.  We fiddled with the A/C and tried to get the cooling to work again.  Without asking, the driver pulled off the side of the freeway and ran back to hop in with us and try to get it working.  We asked him to just drive because we wanted to get there, but he proceeded to continue to try and fix the A/C.  Eventually I shooed him out of the back of the limo and he got us back on the freeway.  A few minutes later, suddenly the A/C started working again.  A few minutes after that, we were pulling into the Wilderness Lodge.  It was a limo ride I would rather forget.  In fact, we haven’t had a good limo ride in Florida yet – our limo during our wedding rehearsal actually broke down on Disney property.  No more limos for us in Florida!

When we arrived at the Wilderness Lodge, a cast member was waiting for us and took us straight through the lobby, up the elevator and directly to the 7^th floor concierge.  The concierge staff apologized for not having the room available that I had requested, which was room 7084, the Honeymoon Suite we had stayed in when we got married.  I had made the reservation one full year before this day and had called back repeatedly to ensure our request for room 7084 was on the reservation.  Andrew could see the red start to fill up my ears when he told us he didn’t have our room available.

The concierge once again apologized for not being able to accommodate the request.  He said the concierge manager hoped it would be okay with us if we were upgraded to the Yellowstone Suite.

Did I hear him right? THE YELLOWSTONE SUITE?

Master Bedroom in the Yellowstone Suite

For our wedding trip ten years prior, I had researched the room types at the Wilderness Lodge to a degree which almost sickened myself.  I knew the square footage, all of the furniture styles, locations throughout the lodge, and every single thing about every room type they had, except the Yellowstone Suite.  You see, most people didn’t have a chance to stay in the Yellowstone Suite, so there wasn’t much information online about the room.  You could occasionally find information and pictures when someone was fortunate enough to be upgraded to the Yosemite Suite, which is considered their Vice Presidential level suite.  Finding pictures or information about the Yellowstone Suite was so difficult, I didn’t even consider booking it for our wedding.  The rate on the Honeymoon Suite we booked was $495 per night, while the Yellowstone Suite was $1000 per night.  It wasn’t even on our radar.

I had no idea what to expect in the Yellowstone Suite.  Even the concierge seemed surprised at what he himself was telling us, and he later expressed that it was such a rare event that the management upgraded anyone to the Yellowstone that it was quite a treat for him indeed.

The concierge staff had our keys ready for room 7123, aka The Yellowstone Suite, aka the Presidential Suite, for the Wilderness Lodge.  They escorted us to the farthest end of the property on the 7^th floor and allowed me to do the honors to open up the double entrance doors into the rich wood-lined foyer.  Past the formal entrance, there was a small receiving area with a half bath.  This led out into the formal living room.  To the left was a formal den and the first balcony which had impressive views of the property facing the pool and Bay Lake, and a glimpse of the Sunrise Terrace on the 4^th floor where we were married 10 years prior.  The entire suite was covered from floor to ceiling with deep wood paneling and unique pieces of art, such as wood carvings and original oil paintings from the northwest.

The main living featured a second balcony, leading into a beautiful formal dining room with a custom wood dining table and seating for eight people, along with a third balcony.  A kitchenette had a decent sized refrigerator, a small sink, coffee accessories, a microwave and some plates and cups for use.

View from the Yellowstone Suite

The master bedroom had a very impressive four poster hand carved king bed with beautiful furnishings including a large bureau, a beautiful wardrobe, two side tables and comfortable chairs and benches throughout.  The bathroom was massive and featured two separate vanity areas, a separate makeup area, a separate room with a toilet and bidet, a huge double walk-in shower and the biggest Jacuzzi tub I have ever seen in my life.

It is difficult to explain just how large and beautiful the Yellowstone Suite is.  While I don’t know for sure, my guess is that the entire suite is around 1300 square feet.  It had four full balconies, two flat screen televisions, two separate bathrooms, his and hers vanities, a full dining room, the biggest Jacuzzi tub on the planet, a double shower, two separate entrances and for crying out loud, it even had a bidet.  The place was huge.

The concierge came to the room and asked to come in and see it.  Even some of the staff at the resort had never been invited inside the room before.  We were shown how to use the very sophisticated remote control systems for the electronics, as well as all of the touchpad lights throughout the suite.  Many of the light controls had 2-6 items on the same touch panel, and they were often variable so you could dim or brighten the lights if you held the panel for a moment.  The concierge provided us with Happy Anniversary pins and a welcome basket with several different chocolates and nuts inside.

I spent a bit of time photographing the suite and did a video walk-through of the entire place.  I was so excited and amazed at the Suite that I pretty much forgot everything else around us.  Andrew took the camera and went around capturing more pictures as I started unpacking.  I called his mom to tell her about the surprise of a lifetime we had just been given, and he completed the unpacking process.

We went back out to concierge to express our gratitude of the upgrade.  They all seemed to be a little jealous that we were staying in it for the next 9 days.  The concierge assisted us to make dinner reservations The Flying Fish at the Boardwalk Resort.  Originally they couldn’t get us in before 8pm but while we snacked on cheese, meats and crackers at the snack area, they were able to call and arrange to squeeze us in for a 7pm reservation.

The water taxi provided our first bit of transportation to the Magic Kingdom where we transferred to a bus to the Boardwalk.  We looked around in the shops where I picked up my first two pins from Disney celebrating St Patty’s Day with a Luck of the Irish motif.  One of my favorite things to do at Disney is pin trading with the Cast Members.  Many of them wear lanyards or fabric swatches at their waist to trade pins with guests.  I love trading with them.  Before this trip, I had purchased a lot of 40 pins from eBay to trade during our stay.

We walked over to the Flying Fish and picked up a pager.  After about 10 minutes, they called our names and noticed we weren’t wearing our Anniversary pins.  They gave us a second set and insisted that we wear them.  It wasn’t long before we realized that guests wearing their celebration pins get a lot more interaction and perks than guests who aren’t wearing pins.  The Cast Members are required to acknowledge your pins by saying “Happy Anniversary” every time they see you, so we heard it dozens of times each day.  It felt a little weird going around without the pins after a while, because nobody said anything to us without them.

Dinner at The Flying Fish

The Flying Fish had incredible food.  The waiter attempted to give us champagne as a gift for us to toast to our anniversary, but we politely declined stating we don’t drink alcohol.  He came back a few minutes later with some kind of mango sparkling cider for our toast, which was very cute.  The steak I had was very, very good.  It was one of the best steaks of the trip, in fact.  The total amount our amazing dinner at The Flying Fish would have cost was $143 but it was included on our dining plan, so we simply paid $25 for the tip.

We were on the Platinum Plan during our stay at Disney, which is the highest plan money can buy.  The Platinum Plan means that everything is included.  That means everything.  There is almost nothing you can do at Disney on that plan that is not included, apart from tips and alcohol.  Every single day on this plan, we received three full meals and two snacks – for each person – and no matter what we ate, it was always one single point.  For each full meal we were allowed to choose an appetizer, entrée and dessert and one non-alcoholic beverage.

So let me run this down for you.   On the Platinum Plan, each person receives a breakfast appetizer, entrée, dessert and drink, two snacks such as a soda and a rice crispy treat, then a lunch appetizer, entrée, dessert and drink, two more snacks such as an iced tea and an ice cream cone, then a dinner appetizer, entrée, dessert and drink, every single day.

Can you eat that much food?  Neither could we.  Halfway through our trip we were ordering stuff just to use up the points, trying a small bite and moving on.  It’s simply an enormous amount of food.

After dinner, we walked along the Boardwalk and I had the chance to trade a few more pins.  We then boarded the bus back to the Magic Kingdom and went into the park during the Magic Hours.  It was open until midnight.  I bought a few more pins and we walked down Main Street against the mass exodus of people leaving the park following the evening Wishes Fireworks show.  There was a giant crane to the right of the castle which was being used to remove the Christmas light displays.  One of our boat captains later told us the crane was there to lift up the castle at Cinderella’s request so the housekeeping could dust underneath it.  We walked into the castle and found the place we had to come for the Royal Table breakfast the following morning.

Exhausted from a long and exciting day, we walked back down Main Street and I traded a few more pins with some Cast Members.  We left Magic Kingdom on a large boat around 10:00pm and went back to the Wilderness Lodge.  Andrew wrote up the recap notes on the Xoom and I restocked my trading pin lanyard with more options for the following day.  I expressed my love for Andrew’s note taking ability for the recaps, and we both crashed hard.

We definitely agreed on our Favorite Things of the Day:

At Universal, it was riding Revenge of the Mummy.  At Disney, it was our Yellowstone Suite Upgrade!

Did you know? There’s a lot more to this story!

Flight to Florida & Universal’s Royal Pacific Hotel
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter & Islands of Adventure
Universal Studios & Arriving at Walt Disney World
Visiting the Magic Kingdom & The Richard Petty Experience
Water Sports & The California Grille
Hollywood Studios, Star Tours & Toy Story Midway Mania
Epcot & Around the World Segway Tour at the World Showcase
Our 10th Wedding Anniversary
Animal Kingdom, Mini Golf & The Yachtsman Steakhouse
Our Final Day at Disney & our Private Illuminations Cruise
The Missing Towncar & Our Flight to Phoenix

Flickr Photo Collection of Our 10th Anniversary Trip to Florida
See the Wilderness Lodge Yellowstone Suite Video Walk Through
See my Richard Petty Ride Along Experience Video

Friday, January 27, 2012

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter & Islands of Adventure

Breakfast arrived to our room at 6:15am.  Andrew ordered the spinach, bacon and Swiss omelet. Jessica got the All American Scrambled Eggs. It was pretty good for in-room dining, but nothing to really get excited about.  The best part about breakfast was that we were done eating by 6:45am, and none of the other restaurants opened until 7:00am.  We took advantage of this by making our way over to the gates at Islands of Adventure to be the first ones in the park.

By 7:30am, we were first in line at the turnstiles to get in at 8:00am.  As a guest at a Universal Orlando property, we were allowed to get into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter one full hour before the park opened to the public.  Since WWoHP was the hottest thing in Florida as far as tourist attractions go, this one hour made all of the difference in the world to our visit.  We had arranged our trip to be at the theme parks on the least busy weekend of the entire year because neither of us like crowds.

Hogsmeade

What do you get when you visit on a “slow” weekend and get into the park an hour before the public?  Completely EMPTY park.  We loved every second of it!  I was able to take as many pictures and videos as I wanted with nobody in the shots, nobody in the way, and nobody pushing me out of the way.  It was truly unbelievable.

The first thing we did when we arrived at WWoHP was to go straight to Ollivander’s for the Wand Ceremony.  My dear friend Sue had advised us to do this first, because they only let about 20 people inside at a time and since it takes so long to conduct the ceremony, the lines are actually longer for Ollivander’s than they are for the other attractions.  We walked right up into line and walked straight into Ollivander’s without waiting (thanks Sue!).  Later in the day, the line did queue a bit but I don’t think most people waited more than an hour to see it on that particular day.

Ollivander’s is very small and they crowd a bunch of people inside.  The actor then chooses a small child from the crowd to receive a wand based on his or her birth date.  Then the actor has the child flick several different wands until one “chooses” the child.  It’s pretty cute, especially for big fans of the movie.  Afterwards, they corral you into the gift shop where you have the option to purchase your own wand.  They have displays for character wands (such as if you want to buy Harry’s or Sirius’ wand) as well as wands for other witches and wizards based on your birthday or anniversary.

Hogwarts

We walked over and hopped in line to ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. By this, I mean we walked and walked and walked through the empty queue for a good 10-12 minutes before finally making it to the front of the “line” which did not exist.  We literally walked straight onto the ride.  We had heard horror stories of people who waited 3 or more hours to ride this ride.  We felt extremely fortunate to walk straight onto it.

The Forbidden Journey is a ride like no other.  You’re sitting in a four-seat car side by side like in a theater, on a giant mechanical arm which twists and turns you through a series of scenes either on a giant video screen or a real life environment such as encountering the dragon.  It’s like a motion ride on steroids, and like nothing we’ve ever experienced before.  Andrew maintains that it is the best ride in Florida, and he proceeded to ride it three times during our stay!  I rode it twice with him, and the motion made me very ill, so I regretfully couldn’t ride it any more than that.  The ride has a lot of animatronics and effects like fire and water.  You get rotated around, spun quickly and flipped onto your back several times while moving from scene to scene.

Owl Post

We walked to the Owl Post and mailed out three postcards – one to my friend Sarah, one to my friends Sue and Charlotte and one to ourselves.  This happened to be the 15^th anniversary of the day we first met at ASU, so the postcard to ourselves had a message to mark the occasion.  I didn’t realize it until later, but the United States Postal Service had raised postage just a few days before this from 29 cents to 32 cents for postcard stamps.  The stamps I had been using up until this point were 28 cent postcard stamps, which I had stored in my wallet to send mail to my little brother Noah while we were traveling.  I never realized the rates raised from 28 to 29 cents!  The post office was kind enough to continue to mail my postcards even with deficient postage for the past year or so.  Lucky enough for us, our postcards mailed from Hogsmeade also arrived at their destination, each short 4 cents postage.  I later picked up a stash of 32 cent stamps so I would be in compliance for all future mailings.

With our postcards mailed by Owl Post, we went to the gift shop and I purchased two pins for my collection.  The first was my House pin for Slytherin, which I was sorted into while playing on Pottermore online.  The second pin was a Hogwarts pin with small crystals matching the colors of the Houses.  I also purchased a round white Christmas ornament with pictures of the Harry Potter characters on it to commemorate our trip.  We had the ornament shipped back to the Trading Post at the front of the park for pickup later that evening, and I wore the pins on my lanyard.

Butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks

We went inside the Three Broomsticks restaurant and purchased one regular Butterbeer.  There were no lines and we got our Butterbeer right away and sat down near the Hog’s Head bar to enjoy it.  The Butterbeer has a nice butterscotch taste with a light butter foam on top, which was incredibly tasty!  The Butterbeer had to be one of the highlights of our trip.  We’ve tried to emulate it at home using recipes we found online with cream soda, vanilla and melted butter, but it was nothing like tasting the real thing.  I don’t know what Universal puts into it, but it’s mighty delicious and worth way more than the $3.25 they charge 12 ounces of the stuff.

Honeydukes was next on our adventure and we had a nice time walking around the empty shop and looking at all the sweets.  For my friend Sarah’s birthday I picked up some Chocoballs, a Limited Edition Chocolate Frog and a box of Peppermint Frogs.  I picked up a Chocolate Covered Lightning Bolt Shaped Rice Crispy Treat (that’s a mouthful) and it was absolutely delicious.  The items for Sarah were sent back to the Trading Post for pickup later with the ornament.

We went through the queue again for The Forbidden Journey, this time allowing people to pass us by so we could stop and take pictures of all the items in the queue, such as the House Points display, the moving paintings, Dumbledore’s office, the Gryffindor Common Room and the Pensieve.  We once again made it to the front of the line and only waited 2-3 minutes before walking onto the ride.  It was just as incredible the second time through!  Even though we knew that the photo was taken just after you pass the spiders, the second ride photo was just as bad as the first one so we once again passed it up.

Extendable Ears inside Zonko's

I was feeling awfully ill by now with all the motion in the ride, so Andrew went off to ride the Flight of the Hippogriff which is meant for smaller witches and wizards.  While he was on the ride, I hung out and took pictures of all the windows throughout the village of Hogsmeade.  The windows had lots of little details that you could pick up on if you had read the books and saw the movies, like the actual tuxedo and gown that Harry and Hermione had worn to the Yule Ball in the movies.  They had animated Mandrakes (whose screams will kill you, according to the books) and even Moaning Myrtle could be heard teasing you inside the bathrooms.

We went back to Dervish and Bangs which was the shop we were corralled into after the Wand Ceremony.  Andrew purchased a wand for his friend and coworker Bonny based on her birthday.  We looked at the ones for our birthdays and our anniversaries, but we didn’t like any of them.  Most of them had skulls on the top and were somewhat gruesome.  Andrew also picked up a Hogwart’s pin for his coworker Mary, and I got a Hufflepuff House patch for my friend Sarah.  We sent all of it back to the Trading Post to pick up later that evening.

Andrew decided to ride the Dueling Dragons and made his way through the queue, choosing the Blue dragon on the right.  While he was off doing that, I took dozens of pictures inside the (still) empty Honeydukes sweets shop and inside Zonko’s joke shop.  Once he completed the ride, Andrew came and found me and we went back through the queue of the Dueling Dragons so I could see all of the fun props and things they had built surrounding the Triwizard Tournament, such as the Goblet of Fire, the Golden Eggs and the Triwizard Cup.  The queue was very well done, and is definitely worth a look even if you don’t want to ride.  Andrew chose the Red side the second time through, and I waited for him at the ride exit.

Hogwarts Express

We went back to the entrance of Hogsmeade and a kind stranger took a picture of us in front of the Hogwart’s Express.  Later in the day when the crowds started coming, we noticed they had a Conductor character standing in front of the train that kids could have their photos taken with.  It was a nice little extra for visitors.  Andrew noticed that once you entered Hogsmeade, the sensation of being within the world of Harry Potter was never broken.  There was nothing that indicated you are at Universal Orlando; they had no penny smooshers or generic gift shops.  Everything about this area of the park was 100% Harry Potter.  The illusion was never broken, and I think that’s what made it so magical.

Lunch was enjoyed at the Three Broomsticks.  I had the fish and chips plus a water, and it was very tasty.  Andrew decided on the Shepard’s Pie with a Pumpkin Juice, and he really liked it.  I tried his Pumpkin Juice and thought it was horrid; to me, it tasted like a sugar laced pumpkin tea.  Andrew liked it though, so that’s all that mattered.

After four hours exploring a relatively empty WWoHP, we finally ventured outside of Hogsmeade to experience the rest of Islands of Adventure.  We went through the Jurrasic Park section but the water ride was closed.  We tried to ride the Pteradon Flyers but we were told we were too tall and had to have a child with us.  We walked through the Comics section but didn’t ride anything.  Then we made it to Marvel Land and rode Spiderman using our included VIP Express Pass.  Spiderman had been partially upgraded to new projectors and screens, but it was still relatively old.  We may have been slightly jaded having ridden Forbidden Journey twice already that day.

The Flying Car inside the Dueling Dragons Queue

Andrew decided to ride The Hulk.  He used the Express Pass to go through the line and ended up waiting longer than if he had been in the regular line, although only about 5 minutes.  He was in the second row, and he said it shook his skull up a bit.  In fact, he felt the motion effects of the Hulk for a few days afterwards.

We made our way over to Seuss Landing and rode The Cat in the Hat using our Express Passes.  It was a bit too much spinning for my taste as I was still motion sick from the airplane and forcing myself on The Forbidden Journey twice.  We sat down to help calm my stomach and watched the 12:30pm Sinbad Stunt Show, in which I was not impressed.  We then got in line for the 1:15pm Poseidon’s Fury show, and waited 30 minutes because we didn’t realize the show before had just started when we got in line.  Again, I was relatively unimpressed and growing cranky because I was used to just walking onto everything.

Having exhausted the rest of the park in a whopping hour, we made our way back to Hogsmeade and went shopping again at Honeydukes.  This time, I picked up some Chocoballs for myself (which I ended up not liking) and a plain rice crispy treat.  Andrew decided upon some Treacle Fudge which he really liked.  We then walked over to the Hog’s Head and picked up a frozen Butterbeer, which we both agreed was not as tasty as the regular version.

It was raining slightly and misting throughout the day which helped with the illusion at Hogsmeade.  It felt like we were in London with overcast skies and lots of clouds.  I don’t think the effect would have been as authentic if the sun had been shining, given the mounds of snow on top of the buildings.

Triwizard Cup inside the Dueling Dragons Queue

We said goodbye to WWoHP for the day and went back to Marvel to ride Spiderman one more time.  Then we picked up our souvenirs from the Trading Post and walked back to the Royal Pacific hotel.  We tried to ask the concierge for help shipping the gifts to my friend Sarah, but they couldn’t help us.  We went down to the Business Center which advertised shipping via FedEx and UPS, but they also couldn’t help us.  They didn’t have any boxes, packing materials or tape for purchase or use.  We ended up keeping all the items and taking them with us to Disney, which was definitely not the plan.

Exhausted from the day’s adventures, we took a quick nap and wrote the day’s recaps.  Then we decided to have dinner at NBA City at CityWalk.  We tried the Parmesan chicken tenders for an appetizer but they were dry and not tasty at all.  Andrew got a cheesesteak, and I chose Captain Jin’s Ginger Chicken which was pretty good.  I also got the Chocolate Caramel Appletini which was good, but too much of a contrast with the ginger chicken to be enjoyable.  After dinner, we walked over to TCBY for frozen yogurt.  Andrew got called by his boss at work about a problem they needed help with immediately.  Unfortunately, Andrew couldn’t do much from central Florida because he couldn’t log into his work machine from the Xoom or from his phone.

Jessica’s Favorite Things of the Day: Walking through Hogsmeade, drinking Butterbeer and taking pictures inside Honeydukes

Andrew’s Favorite Things of the Day: Riding The Forbidden Journey and the regular Butterbeer

Did you know? There’s a lot more to this story!

Flight to Florida & Universal’s Royal Pacific Hotel
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter & Islands of Adventure
Universal Studios & Arriving at Walt Disney World
Visiting the Magic Kingdom & The Richard Petty Experience
Water Sports & The California Grille
Hollywood Studios, Star Tours & Toy Story Midway Mania
Epcot & Around the World Segway Tour at the World Showcase
Our 10th Wedding Anniversary
Animal Kingdom, Mini Golf & The Yachtsman Steakhouse
Our Final Day at Disney & our Private Illuminations Cruise
The Missing Towncar & Our Flight to Phoenix

Flickr Photo Collection of Our 10th Anniversary Trip to Florida
See the Wilderness Lodge Yellowstone Suite Video Walk Through
See my Richard Petty Ride Along Experience Video

During our trip to Florida for our 10th anniversary, throughout the day I took notes on my DROID smartphone in an email draft to myself so we could remember everything we did.  At the end of the day, I emailed the notes to myself and compiled them all in a Google Doc into one big Florida trip journal.  It wasn’t until a few weeks after the trip that I actually typed these recaps in full detail.  I will share them with you one day at a time so you, the reader, can experience them at the same pace we did.  I hope you enjoy reading about our trip.  We had the time of our lives!

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Flight to Florida & Universal’s Royal Pacific Hotel

We started planning for this trip exactly a year before it started.  We spent days researching all the things we wanted to do like tours, restaurants, park hours and more.  We tirelessly coordinated expected park hours and timings to get the most out of the vacation.  Finally, it was time to go!

Andrew’s parents picked us up at our house in Gilbert at 4:30am and took us to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport for our 7:00am flight to Atlanta.  We didn’t have much trouble getting our bags checked because we had checked in online with Delta Airlines before we left.  We even used our DROID smartphones to get through security and get on the plane, using the QR that was sent to us by text from Delta.  It was the first time Andrew had ever used the paperless boarding process.

Walking Path to Universal Studios from the Royal Pacific Resort

When we got to the airport in Atlanta, we grabbed a bit of lunch.  I opted for a snack at Auntie Anne’s Pretzels while Andrew snagged some Chick-Fil-A.  They didn’t exactly have any healthy options to choose from.  Our layover was fairly short, only about 30 minutes, and we were back on our way.

On the second leg of the flight from Atlanta to Orlando, I sat in the center seat and struck up a conversation with the guy in the aisle seat.  (Andrew usually sits in the window seat when we fly.)  The guy was Shawn Finney, an assistant basketball coach at the University of Central Florida.  We had some interesting conversations during that flight, about basketball, leadership and family history.  He told me that a wise man once advised him, “I don’t manage my people, I lead them.”  What great advice!  We finished out the flight by doing a crossword puzzle together on his iPad2.

Once in Orlando, Andrew and I met up with our Towncar driver Raul from Destination MCO Orlando.  The company sent me a text message confirming the Towncar and gave me the name and location of the driver so we could find him.  We were pleasantly surprised at the space inside the Lincoln Towncar, and had a very comfortable ride to Universal Studios.

Room 3617 at Universal's Royal Pacific Resort

We arrived at Loews Royal Pacific Resort and the check-in went smooth.  We were given room 3617, which is in Tower 3 on the 6^th floor.  The concierge was on the 7^th floor, however; so every time we wanted to use our club concierge keys we had to take the elevator up one floor to go grab a snack.  That was awfully annoying throughout our 2-night stay.

Downstairs in the lobby, we returned to purchase 2-day 2-park tickets for Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.  Andrew accidentally left his credit card at the ticket desk while we walked to CityWalk for some dinner.  The walk was fairly short at about half a mile, and took us about 10 minutes or so.  It followed the route of the water taxi, and walking was always faster.

Once at CityWalk, we ate dinner at Pastamore.  Andrew opted for the Risotto & Chicken, and Jessica had really bad Chicken Parmesan ($42).  While paying for dinner, Andrew realized he no longer had his credit card.  I called the ticket desk back at Royal Pacific and they confirmed they had the card, so Andrew calmed down a bit and we stayed in CityWalk a few minutes to go shopping at the Universal Store.  I picked up a Chocolate Frog from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which ended up having a Ravenclaw card inside.  We then made our way back to the resort where Andrew breathed a sigh of relief once he had his credit card back in his hand.

Chocolate Frog

After dinner we went swimming at the Royal Pacific.  The pool was huge and pretty much empty.  We had the run of the whole place to ourselves, sans a few lifeguards who were required to watch us.  Andrew even came into the water for a couple of minutes.  I ran through their kids play area which had a pirate ship with water pouring out random places in heavy sheets.  The first one I ran through was a decent temperature.  The second one, however, was freezing cold.  I learned quickly to test the temperature of the various water attractions before running through them!

We went back into the resort and up to the 7^th floor concierge for dessert.  We opted for cookies and a little crème brûlée.  We ordered room service breakfast for the following morning because we wanted to leave the hotel before the restaurants opened, and then hit the sack.

Andrew’s Favorite Thing of the Day: Finally getting to the room in Orlando

Jessica’s Favorite Thing of the Day: Swimming in the pool at the Royal Pacific

Did you know? There’s a lot more to this story!

Flight to Florida & Universal’s Royal Pacific Hotel
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter & Islands of Adventure
Universal Studios & Arriving at Walt Disney World
Visiting the Magic Kingdom & The Richard Petty Experience
Water Sports & The California Grille
Hollywood Studios, Star Tours & Toy Story Midway Mania
Epcot & Around the World Segway Tour at the World Showcase
Our 10th Wedding Anniversary
Animal Kingdom, Mini Golf & The Yachtsman Steakhouse
Our Final Day at Disney & our Private Illuminations Cruise
The Missing Towncar & Our Flight to Phoenix

Flickr Photo Collection of Our 10th Anniversary Trip to Florida
See the Wilderness Lodge Yellowstone Suite Video Walk Through
See my Richard Petty Ride Along Experience Video

I dug out this old picture of me on the back of the Disney Wonder cruise ship at Castaway Cay, Disney’s private island in the Bahamas.  This was taken on March 15, 2008.  Just look at that smile!  Notice the neck full of Disney trading pins and the Black Pearl from Pirates of the Caribbean in the background.  I loved our first Disney cruise!  I hope we can go on another one someday.

Jessica at Castaway Cay

We’ve traveled to some incredible destinations over the past decade together.  Some of those trips have created the memories to cherish for a lifetime.  Ironically, many of those instances were tied directly to the cars we rented at our destination’s airport.

It’s seems like a funny thing to do doesn’t it?  Who would generate a blog entry dedicated to rental cars?  Cars are a big part of our life.  From my husband’s love of Transformers to my father’s career with General Motors to our travels to auto museums throughout the country, cars are always a big part of our adventures.

I’ve chosen three cars in particular that have played an integral part of three very special vacations, and I’d like to share with you why.

2004 Jeep Cherokee

2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee – We rented this Wonder Jeep on the Big Island in Hawaii and used it to circumnavigate the island multiple times.  This vehicle took us where no other rental car could dream of.  Its 4×4 action climbed lava rocks, sandy beaches and even suffered a coconut concussion.  Without it, we never could have made it to the Green Sand Beach.  This Jeep made our trip amazing, and we still talk about today!

2009 Mustang GT

2008 Ford Mustang GT – We rented this beautiful blue convertible Mustang in Vancouver to enjoy in our days prior to board our cruise to Alaska.  Much to our dismay, it rained almost the entire trip.  Just before we were about to take it back, the sun broke free from the sky and we rejoiced!  This little beauty took us around and around Stanley Park with the top down, wind in our hair and spirits finally free.  This Mustang was one of the best things that happened to us in Vancouver.  I also loved the “butt warmers” which made for an especially pleasing ride.

2009 Camaro

2009 Chevrolet Camaro – Cliffjumper (from the Transformers) is what this red beauty is known by in our household.  Arriving in Denver for the Fourth of July was the last thing Andrew wanted to do.  Sick to his stomach and exhausted from travel, you can imagine the brain crunching that had to occur when I gave him the keys to our secret rental.  Driving around Denver in a real live Cliffjumper may have just made that trip bearable for him.  We quickly determined that we both pretty much hated the vehicle, but it was really fun to rent one.  We were both scared of harming it in any way.  Getting dirt on the floorboards was some kind of sin.  The blind spots in this car were absolutely horrendous.  People stopped in the parking lots to take their picture with our rental car.  It garnered a massive amount of unwanted attention from the public in Denver.  This rental car definitely made the trip a memorable one.

Here’s hoping that our future holds many more destinations, and more incredible rental cars.

We took our traveling gnome, Fred, on a trip to Michigan in 2009.  We photographed him all over the state doing funny things.

These are two of my favorite shots.  The first one is Fred at the Mackinac Bridge.  He enjoyed the views of the lake!  The second one is Fred on the Ausable River bank in Mio, Michigan.  I used to raft and canoe down this river from this exact boat launch when I was kid.  Fred enjoyed listening to me relive the memories of this spot.  (Probably more than Andrew did, but they both listened to my story anyway.)

Fred at the Mackinac Bridge

Fred at the Ausable River in Mio, Michigan

Andrew and I took Mom to visit Four Corners in April, 2008. It was a whole lot of driving and not a lot to see.

Jessica and Andrew at Four Corners

The best part of the trip came courtesy of our spontaneity on the way back when we detoured to see Monument Valley. It was really incredible to witness the extraordinary landscapes there!

Monument Valley, 2008

Taken from a private airplane over Seattle, Washington.  A special thanks to my friend Noel who took us on this amazing adventure!

May 15, 2007