Our pack-it-all-in trip, June 4-12, 2011, Days 1-3

This is the first trip we’ve done with just my family and my closest-in-age sister’s family. Our children are around the same ages, so it’s nice for them to be together on vacation. Also we like to travel on our own schedules, so we met up on three days out of the trip; the other days we were on our own.

With the kids getting older (i.e. more expensive), and us counting our pennies more and more, this may be our last trip for awhile.

Travelers: Me, 48
DH, 46
DD, 15
DS, 12
DS, 6

My sis and her family:
Sis: 47
Her DH: 48
DS: 16
DS: 15
DS: 14
DS: 7

Day 1: We drove down from Chicago to save on airfare. When I say “save,” what I really mean is, we wouldn’t have done the trip if we had to pay for airfare, since it would have cost around $1,300 for the five of us. We used airline miles to “pay” for hotel rooms for two nights, one there and one back, and we packed a cooler for the car, so all it cost us extra was gas money, around $400 round trip. (My sister’s husband drove down on a separate schedule with his older boys, and my sister flew with her youngest son.)

We planned to leave around 3 a.m. with a several-hour stop at Mammoth Cave National Park near Bowling Green, Ky. We actually left at 5:30 a.m., but we were still able to stop at Mammoth and do a 2-hour tour of one of the cave trails, the New Entrance. The tours are very well organized. For ours, we were loaded onto buses from the Visitor Center to the entrance, about a 10-minute drive. We covered only a tiny fraction of this park, and I highly recommend it. It’s the closest National Park to Chicago and is a real treasure. The New Entrance tour, although a little strenuous at times, wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. The stairs descending into the cave did not all have to be traversed on the way back up; instead there were inclines that made it easier. We got back on the road at about 4 p.m.

Our first night was at Embassy Suites Perimeter Center in Atlanta. With bathroom and meal/leg-stretching stops, we got in around 11 p.m. The room was fine, clean, two double beds and a pull-out coach, great for our family.

Day 2: Breakfast the next morning was the usual Embassy Suites buffet: eggs, sausage/bacon, muffins, cereal, coffee, juices, etc., again great for our family. And since we used airline miles for the room, we considered our breakfast really “free.”

We left around 11 a.m. on Sunday to continue the drive, finally getting into Orlando around 8 p.m. Our first night we stayed at Loews Royal Pacific Hotel at Universal to take advantage of the early admission to the Harry Potter area at Islands of Adventure and the included Express Passes for the rides. We had “purchased” four adult tickets with debit card points before our trip, so we needed to buy one child ticket for one day, both parks. This was available at the concierge desk, which closed at 8 p.m. but opened again in the morning at 7 a.m.

The Royal Pacific Hotel was stunningly beautiful, both inside and out. Check-in was pleasant, and the room was spacious, warmly decorated and clean. We had a water view, which was of both the pool and the canal connecting the resort to Universal parks. I would definitely stay there again.

We went swimming right after check-in. The pool was absolutely AWESOME, one of the best pools we’ve ever been to at any resort, including all of our stays at Disney. It was large, with little areas that felt more secluded, and lounge chairs in a sandy beach area covered by tall palm trees. It had a child’s fountain play area, lush foliage, two hot tubs, a cool slide, zero entry, and each night they showed a movie poolside on one end, but on the other end you didn’t even notice it! Also had a poolside bar and grill, which we didn’t use. This resort was the least expensive of the Universal resorts, and we used our AAA discount, so the water view room cost us $251 plus tax. With the park Express Passes (not park tickets) included, we felt like we got a real bargain.

After swimming we went down to Jake’s American Bar for a late dinner – very yummy and we saw the end of Game 3 of the NBA finals. Jake’s is one of several restaurants at the resort.

Day 3: The next morning we were up bright and early to get to Islands of Adventure for the early hour at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We walked along the canal path to the theme park, which took about 10 minutes. There is also a boat/shuttle combo that takes you to the entrance. We reached the gate at around 7:40 a.m. and there was a very long line to get in. Room keys were required to enter but were only very briefly examined to get the line moving. Once the gates were opened, everyone walked quickly through Seuss Landing to the Harry Potter area. It was lovely to see – as a Harry Potter fan, I actually got goosebumps. We bypassed the shops and made our way to the Forbidden Journey ride. The line actually moved quickly and there was so much to see along the queue, I actually can’t even tell you how long of a wait it was.

Now, here I have to stop and say that I am one of those people who gets motion sick on SOME rides, mostly roller coasters and those that spin you around quickly. I don’t get woozy on all rides, and I CAN ride relatively tame spinny rides like Dumbo or “flying” rides like Soarin or even the Star Wars ride without any ill effects. I had heard that the Forbidden Journey was pretty intense and could be stomach churning, so I took Dramamine more than an hour before the ride.

We were loaded onto the ride and the attendant really jammed the overhead bars down. I now understand the reason many people of “larger size” weren’t able to ride – you’re really crammed in there. In fact until the ride started, one of my legs was pinching against the side of the seat. I didn’t notice this once the ride began, though.

As expected, it was intense. The ride combines fast “flying” movement, back and forth and side to side, with virtual reality cinema scenes juxtaposed with animatronic scenes. At some points you’re tipped backward so far you feel like you’re flipping. It’s really fantastic and I was loving it. My problem was that about halfway through the ride, my body told me the Dramamine wasn’t working. I held on but had to close my eyes about 30 seconds before the end of the ride. I was sweating and wondering what the theme park workers do if someone loses it on the ride and hoping I wouldn’t have to find out.

The ride ended, my sister got out and said, “ooh, I feel a little,” then looked at me and said, “uh oh.” My stomach was contracting. A cast member saw me and motioned me toward the trash can. You can guess the rest. Afterwards I was led to a little holding room where the moms and dads wait with their little ones who are too small or frightened to ride. I was the only single adult in there.

Now I have to tell you, I have NEVER EVER before gotten so sick after a ride in my LIFE. I have had to sit down for awhile after rides like Expedition Everest, but I never, well, you know. And this was after I took an anti-motion sickness pill! (Which also made me feel loopy for awhile all by itself – so unfair!) It set the stage for me the rest of the trip, and I had to avoid any ride I knew I might have a problem with. The issue for me was that there were some rides with motion sickness warnings that I had never experienced and didn’t know whether they’d have that kind of effect on me. Like the “Jaws” ride. For those who have been on this, you know what I mean when I say, come on! It’s lame! Why would they have a motion sickness warning? Just cause it’s on water? Who could possibly get sick on this? But there was the warning, so I had to make the call.

All in all, I was glad I rode the Harry Potter ride, even though I missed the end. Someday I’ll figure out how to fix this and then I’ll be right back on.

Anyway, the rest of the day was great. We did stop in the shops like Zonko’s joke store and Ollivander’s wand shop, where my boys picked out Harry Potter’s and Voldemort’s wands. We did not stand in line for the Ollivander’s presentation (my sister did the next day – they waited in line for 50 minutes first thing in the morning and were disappointed in the cute but too brief presentation).

One of our favorite attractions in Islands of Adventure was Poseidon’s Fury. It is a walk-through show attraction that is a little corny, but the water and fire special effects are a lot of fun. We also liked the Jurassic Park River Adventure. At Universal Studios Florida, our favorites were the Disaster ride (partially because one of our party got to be in the show), the Simpsons Ride and E.T. Adventure. The big kids split off from us for a couple of hours while the parents stayed with the little kids and took them on the Seuss ride and a few others. The big kids did the Spiderman ride and Rip Ride Rockit, which they liked.

The park hours at Universal were surprising. Universal Studios Florida closed at 7 p.m., while Islands of Adventure closed at 8. We did a lot of touring of both parks on the one day we had, but we could have used another hour or two. If you want to do every ride in both parks, two days of touring is more than enough with an Express Pass. We did plenty in one day.

A note on the cast members working at Universal. This was our second visit in three years to the Universal theme parks. The parks were crowded and hot, but both times we encountered many smiling, cheerful and helpful cast members. We did not run into many indifferent or grumpy cast members.

After leaving Universal, we drove over to Bay Lake Tower to check in for the rest of our vacation.

NEXT: Check-in at Bay Lake, day off on Tuesday and Magic Kingdom/Epcot Wednesday.