Finally making a repeat trip About This Page:

[jagafen]

Hey all! It's been a REALLLY long time since I've posted...I think the last time we were in Orlando was 2012 or so! Anyway, we're going back to Universal summer of 2017, and tentatively planning another Disney trip for the summer of 2019...

My little kiddo is now a full blown 13 y/o, and has grown 8" in the past 2 years...which means he's tall enough for the most intense coasters. He's turned into a little thrill junkie, so we'll be spending a week at Royal Pacific, hoping to check out the new waterpark, and riding the "big rides". Just popping in to catch up!

[HiddenMickey]

Perfect age for US/IOA parks. I know you are truely excited! And the Royal Pacific resort is great! I loved our stay there. The pool area was so relaxing and the lobby just beautiful. Enjoy the planning!

[mamasann]

Your thrill junkie will LOVE the coasters at Universal! And Royal Pacific is so beautiful. I'm officially jealous. Have a wonderful trip. Another park to consider for coasters is Busch Gardens. Their coasters are wonderful! I sure wish WDW would step up and add some of those kinds of rides for our teens.

[leavesfall]

I'd like to go back in such age and enjoy this park again. Good luck and enjoy time!

[jagafen]

Ok. So we all know that it doesn't take as much planning to "do" Universal as it does Disney, but I"ve managed to keep busy.

Since my original post back in September, I booked club level at RPR for our June vacation. Flights, and ground transportation were booked as soon as the dates opened up on Southwest (LOVE SOUTHWEST!) After I looked at our financial status again, I realized that I had mis-calculated, and we were going to hit a milestone much earlier that I had anticipated...which is good news for once. So I crunched numbers a bit, sweet-talked the DH (who works just as hard as I do, and we both believe in relaxing just as hard as we work when we're on vacation)...so I did a naughty, but endorsed by DH thing...

I upgraded us to the Hard Rock club level instead! When DS was 9, RPR was perfect for our family-a relaxed, go with the flow kinda low key place. Now, DS is 14, and being raised properly, has a deep appreciation for rock music from about the 70's to present. Put it this way, at 18 months, his favorite band was AC/DC (ever see a toddler headbang and keep a straight face?), closely followed by The Peppers, Led Zepplin, Green Day, and The Foos. We're a bit of a hard-rockin' family! So, it'll be a little surprise for DS, who still thinks we're going to RPR for vacation.

Second, and this isn't necessarily an "extra" expense, as it was $$ we had already planned on spending, I booked a cabana for our "off park" day. We were going to get a cabana for 2 half days at RPR, So, instead of 2 half cabana days at RPR, we're doing 1 full cabana day at HR for about $50 more than we had originally planned on spending.

Lastly....the big surprise for DH and DS. We'll be there around Father's Day this year. In addition to my f/t job, I make a little extra "mommy side money" by selling my kiddo's outgrown clothing on Ebay...usually, I just throw the $$ into savings and apply it to our vacation fund. This year, I decided to do something special with it, and as part of DH's father's day gift (and because it's splurge $$, not family budget $$), I decided to book the semi-private VIP tour for our family. NO ONE KNOWS. Lord knows, I've almost let it slip once or twice that I've booked it (I suck at keeping a secret a secret long term). I've done a really good job of making sure I don't blow the surprise.

And, because it's not a vacation until you've done some fun stuff...Father's Day dinner reservation at The Palm (another big + for switching hotels, now we don't have to travel for that dinner!) and Emeril's for our last night. Most of our other dining will be done at Citywalk (planning on The Kitchen @ HR, Toothsome, CowFish, and NBC Sports Grill) I've also printed out our tip envelopes for Universal Housekeeping. Minion and superhero themed, of course!

Needless to say, I'm going a bit stir-crazy with the non-planning that's left.

[HiddenMickey]

Great great plans! What a treat this trip will be!

[jagafen]

Coming closer to finalizing our dining plans too...well, as much as they can be finalized just under 3 months out.

Sunday: I've already told you about Father's Day Dinner at The Palm. DH and I met way back in 1995 when we were both part of the opening crew for an Outback Steakhouse. A few months after we started working there, we realized there was a bit of a spark, and started dating. A caveat: Never say never. In our early "just friends days" future-DH had shared with me that he would NEVER date someone he worked with. I showed him! We both dropped back into college about 1 1/2 years after we had been dating, and worked our way up the restaurant ranks to working in fine dining steakhouses in the area. While the $$ was good, it is almost evil to subject adult aged, but still poor college students, to the Champagne luxuries in life. We were more of a soda pop budget at the time. But, it gave us something to "dream" about. Now that we're both professionals, we like to celebrate big happenings with a really nice steak dinner, and an equally fantastic bottle of red wine. We've slowly been knocking high end steakhouses off our list (Morton's is our favorite) We'll see how The Palm stands up.

As an aside, DH and I went to Napa last summer to celebrate our 20th year together anniversary. If you're a wine drinker, and ever get the chance to go, do it!! It has ruined me for life I'm afraid. If you go, visit Morimoto's in Downtown Napa, and order the Seafood Tobanyaki (sp?). It has been a very long time since I've had a dish this good...

Monday/Tuesday: We're not doing a lot of sit down dining in the parks this trip. Last time, we hit both Mythos and Finnegan's. The other options just don't interest us too much, to be honest. So, we'll be checking out CowFish and Toothsome on these nights...probably playing the "who has the shortest wait" game. Then, we'll do the other the following night.

Wednesday: This is our waterpark day, since Volcano Bay will be open for just under a month when we're there. I'm really hoping it's not a madhouse. Probably will be though. We're not open to close park people, so I think all told, we'll be here either for lunch, possibly for dinner (if we decide to sleep in, but I'm not sure if that's the wisest choice either.) If we don't eat dinner in the waterpark, I'm thinking about trying out The Kitchen at the HRH. We may hit the parks and close them down after dinner. Actually, that sounds like a plan (the anti-sleep in plan)..Hit VB with early entry, check it out, have lunch, go back to the hotel, and then maybe to HPlands in the dark? It'll be nice that DS is older, and not kid-aged, so he can handle staying up late without it affecting his mood/attitude the next day.

Thursday: This is our off day/relaxing by the pool/cabana rental day. Lunch will be from the Beach Club, and I'm not sure what dinner will be....maybe I'll save The Kitchen for this evening, and do something at Citywalk since we may be returning to the parks after the waterpark. I'll have to think on these two days a bit--Hard Rock for dinner instead, maybe? DS is a bit of a picky eater, and I've indulged him in that regard, so wherever we eat, we'll be somewhat limited by his palate, or lack thereof.

Friday: We have NBC Sports Grill and Brew slated for this evening. I've heard it's good, and their menu looks really varied too.

Saturday: Emeril's . We want to go out with a "Bang!" (Pun intended). This was on our list for last trip when we were staying at RPR. We checked out Tchop Chop for dinner, and weren't overly impressed with the food. It was tasty, but we were also watching our food die in the window, so when it arrived barely lukewarm, our overall impression took a bit hit. I think we cancelled Emeri's because Tchop Chop didn't live up to his reputation. Enough time has passed that we're willing to give him another shot at our vacation $$.

Sunday: We have a really late flight out, and this day is totally up in the air. We may just wing it, or get something fast casual from Citywalk.

And, I know Portofino has a lot of fans on the boards. I should be upfront with you all. I married into a wonderful Italian family (well, wonderful most days), and we live outside Philly, so we have an overabundance of accessibility to really good Italian food without paying "tourist" prices. No offense to those that love and rave about the restaurants there, but I have zero interest in paying to eat there, when more than likely, it won't stack up to what I can get at home!

[HiddenMickey]

We had a less than stellar meal at Tchoup Tscoup a few years ago too.
It's off our list.

The Kitchen is very good. We've enjoyed a lunch out on their patio and I've had the breakfast there before.

I can't remember if we ordered food from the Beach Club when we stayed at HRH, but we have done so at RPR and repeated that because it was great eating out in the sunshine on our lounge chairs with someone serving us.


DH and DS had a meal at Cowfish and liked it. They also didn't have to wait very long for a table, which was good. We've eaten at Margaritaville and Antijitos (sp?) and they were good, not spectacular but good.

[mamasann]

We've stayed at HRH too! Make sure you see the guitar fountain out front and the clock on the floor in the entrance of the lobby. Way cool! We had dinner at HRH when we stayed and ended up with Scooby Doo and a Minion at our table. The food was really good. They have a great breakfast buffet there as well. It wasn't the pricey steak eatery there, but downstairs from that. I can't remember the name at the moment.

I'm glad you opted for Emerils at City Walk. It's not as pretty inside as Tchoup Tchoup ( & we had poor service and food there as well) , but the service and food is absolutely outstanding at City Walk. Bubba Gump's is a chain, but the food is good and it's a fun experience. We hit our local one in Destin quite often. Just brush up on your Forrest Gump before you go.

Our DS is 15 now and his favorite store at City Walk is Element. Since we usually go the week of Thanksgiving, we've let him select a longboard there for his Christmas gift. I hope ya'll have a wonderful time on your trip. I'm excited for you!!

[jagafen]

Originally Posted by mamasann

I'm glad you opted for Emerils at City Walk. It's not as pretty inside as Tchoup Tchoup ( & we had poor service and food there as well) , but the service and food is absolutely outstanding at City Walk. Bubba Gump's is a chain, but the food is good and it's a fun experience. We hit our local one in Destin quite often. Just brush up on yor Forrest Gump before you go. )

I'm glad to hear that Emeril's at City walk is a better choice for us! I guess I should have also mentioned DS's shellfish allergy. Bubba Gump's is the one place that we definitely won't be able to check out We're typically ok in restaurants that also serve shrimp, but I think trying BG's is just tempting fate a bit too much!

[SuperDave]

Plans are looking great for trip and should be a fun stay! You son is at that age in which he'll really enjoy the attractions at US/IOA!

[jagafen]

I"ve been doing a little shopping to prep for the trip. That's half the fun, right? I spent some time last night looking back over the pictures from our previous vacations, and I forgot how cute progeny looked when he was a kidlet.

Luckily for us, the hubs and the son are big marvel fans. Packing for them is not so much about acquiring stuff for them to wear so much as it is meandering to the dresser to pull out stuff they already own ;-) We've been to the Pottermore site, and were sorted into our respective houses a bit before Christmas. Santa was good to us, and brought us each a pair of house specific PJs, minions jammies, house specific lanyards, and house Ts. So, that was a good start.

In case I forgot to mention it, DS is a Slytherin, DH is a Gryffindor, and I'm a Ravenclaw

My superhero wardrobe consists soley of Wonder Woman Ts. When DS was a tot, I was asked who my favorite superhero was, because in a superhero loving household, you HAVE to HAVE a favorite. I did like WW growing up, I secretly wished that I could by Lynda Carter, but beyond my WW underoos, I haven't had any superhero gear. So, once my hidden devotion (?) was revealed, DH has taken it upon himself to bestow upon me a few WW ts, totally missing the fact that hers was the name that was thrown out to appease the small man-child who was unable to fathom that one did not have a favorite superhero. AND, WW is DC, Universal is totally Marvel, and apparently, I am only appropriately wardrobed for Great Adventure. So, I got to do a little shopping to round out my wardrobe, and of course, I couldn't help but add a bit here and there to the Y chromosome's wardrobes either.

An aside: I lovingly refer to the men in my house as Y chromosomes on occassion. Nothing against the gene, per se, but I do think that habits such as missing the hamper, leaving the seat up, and drinking straight from the container are strongly linked to the Y.

As part of his Christmas gift (which I was later told was one of the coolest things ever....that's a huge compliment in and of itself) we got Alex a subscription to the HP loot crate-3 deliveries, every other month, until our trip. This is the T that came in his first crate, and into the pre-packing pile it went. The rest of his Hogwarts student themed gift consisted of the obligatory student welcome letter, a few of the required books that I was able to get my hands on, an Eagle Owl (since that's what the Malfoy's had), and a handmade candy potions kit, which I totally stole the idea from an Ebay auction. Someone wanted $50 for a wooden box with some empty bottles in it. I went to Michael's on black friday with a coupon in hand and spent $20 on it. I'll come back later and post a pic.


DH has already said that he doesn't want me to buy him a bunch of Ts that "he'll only wear once", I'm guessing as a nice way to keep me from buying him all the Gryffindor gear I can get my hands on. He must think that I put the majority of my free time outside of work planning and prepping for vacations! He loves HP (I know this, because he watches the movies whenever they're on, in spite of the fact that we own them all anyway) but is not as much of a HP nerd as he his a SW nerd.
(In my world, being called a nerd is a compliment). So, I picked this up for him for his birthday in a few weeks-I figured it was a nice compromise:


I also got the guys this T. Alex got it for Christmas, DH will get it for his birthday:


And, since it's momma's wardrobe that is seriously lacking in the theme park appropriate gear, I've done a bit more shopping for myself than I have for the menfolk.

This is my second favorite T. I was a huge Journey fan growing up...tells you a bit about my age demographic....of course, it's in Navy blue, not burgandy, so I can represent my house subtly...


And this one...my first vice is wine, and I am an admitted wineaux, bordering on wine snob, but not the annoying kind, the kind that likes to drink what she likes to drink, and avoids extraneous fruit in wine outside of the grape. Also in Navy blue.


This one. This may be the perfect shirt for me. I'm a little bit sassy sometimes. Royal blue, in honor of my Ravenclaw house:


This is the piece de resistance. We've booked the semi-private tour as DH's father's day gift, so I got a super blingy shirt to match my totally paid for VIP status for the day:



And lastly, since 2/3s of my family are chapstickaholics, I picked these up too. They'll attach to our lanyards. DS's is the minions (which I will probably steal after the trip) and mine is the pretty/girly one:



Shopping bibliography:
Most of the Ts came from www.teenavi.com
The Ravenclaw tank is from Etsy (HarvestApparel)
Chapstick holders also from Etsy (RandomCraftings)

[SuperDave]

Nice wardrobe additions for your trip!

[jagafen]

Guess who paid off their trip over the weekend??!!!

[HiddenMickey]

I am so lame next to you.
I don't shop for anything before a trip.
You Go girl!