Pre Trip Excitement and Flashbacks from last time!

[petals3485]

Going to Florida in Sept and cannot wait!
So far we've booked flights and accomodations. Staying in International Palms resort on international drive I think?! lol can't remember.
We've also booked tickets to MNSSHP so have a snow white costume all organised for that

Last time we went was 2008 when we travelled with a group of dancers
We flew over on the 12th of March 2008. I think if memory serves me correctly we flew with continental airlines which I thought were good. There was a very funny pilot speaking pirate talk with the younger dancers on the way over and he kept us amused most of the way over!
We were staying in the Holiday Inn just at the entrance to Universal Studios with the TGI fridays connected to the hotel. Rooms were nice and clean and I'd say most days we had food in TGI fridays which wasn't to bad. Plus we ended up having a voucher for dinner there one night as there was a mix up with our booking in when we got to the hotel on the 12th. There was two bus loads of dancers and parents about 40 of us arrived on one flight which was grand we got booked in no problem but then when the second lot of dancers ( 100 plus dancers and parents) arrived two hours later the hotel didn't have rooms ready as they had mixed up the dates and thought we were arriving the next day apparently! So to compensate the wait they gave the whole group a dinner voucher each.as grand we got booked in no problem but then when the second lot of dancers ( 100 plus dancers and parents) arrived two hours later the hotel didn't have rooms ready as they had mixed up the dates and thought we were arriving the next day apparently! So to compensate the wait they gave the whole group a dinner voucher each.

The picture below is a view of the hotel pool from our room and if you look off to the left you'll see the entrance to Universal Studios

[Chrissy&Tayen]

awesome.. i would like to see more pics from your other trip if you wanna share.. im a picture junkie..lol

sounds like you had a awesome time.. were going in october and i think im going to go as rapunzel

[petals3485]

Will do love all the pics myself...

Anyways on day 2 of our holiday last time we decided to go to:


Our dancing teacher had buses arranged for us to go to Disney on certain days because we were something like 45 mins drive away from it. Universal was across the road about 5 minutes walk from our hotel and we just fancied a take it easy day so we just walked around having a look at the park mainly. As we walked in we met these guys promoting their new ride which was going to open two months after we were there!


I think it was Mardi Gras while we were there as well so the parks were busy but not over packed.. I think the worse queue in Universal was 20 minutes which I didn't think was that bad considering it was Mardi Gras. It was nice as well to see the park decorated for the events:


As we walked about as well there was different music shows on the streets. Outside one cafe there was something like a grease show and then the blues brothers as well which we watched for a while. They were good:


We decided to watch some of the shows while we were in the park so first up was:

We had been in 2005 and didn't go to this show as we weren't quite sure what it was so we decided to have a look this time and we actually enjoyed it so was all good... I should say when I say we my mum and I tend to go around the parks together to get more in as the rest of the group are more into the thrill rides than we are

As we walked to our next destination we saw this guy getting off a float:

We decided not to wait for pics though because we had other plans we were headed for

Animal planet!! I love this show plus as a bonus they brought the little dog from Men In Black out at the start! When we came out of that there was a cute kids show on across from the Animal Planet venue which we watched for a while before heading for ET which had a 20 minute wait time:


I think after that mam had had enough of the sun so we headed out of the park and checked out the Van Helsing props in the waiting area for Horror make up show on our way:

[Chrissy&Tayen]

awesome youll have to take lots of pics when you go this time too.. i love trip reports with pics and i cant go until october

[petals3485]

Yeah will defo take lots of pics! Bit of a picture queen when I come with a camera take pics of everything lol! Will tak epictures of food as well this time as I notice alot of pics on boards of disney food Looks yummy!
Will put up day 3 from 08 tomorrow we did Seaworld then day 4 was DISNEY

BTW it's 86 days til I'm off to Florida

[mmouse6937]

Those are great pictures! Thanks for showing some of Universal, never been but with the new Harry Potter land it might be something we will do soon. Have a great trip!

[Chrissy&Tayen]

love it

[petals3485]

Those are great pictures! Thanks for showing some of Universal, never been but with the new Harry Potter land it might be something we will do soon. Have a great trip!

No problem.

WWOHP was the main reason we were going this year cos I wanted to see it but then discovered MNSSHP as well plus I love disney so can't wait to get back now

[Chrissy&Tayen]

im so super excited about harry potter

[petals3485]

So more from the last time. Day 3 last time we went to:


I didn't get alot of pictures on the first day mainly video but as we wandered around we came across this fellow outside a shop:

We missed the dolphin feeding and I really want to get to that early this year so we can get up close to Dolphin's but we went under their cave thing and got some cute pics of them from there:

Blue Horizon's the Whale and Dolphin show was our first show because in 2005 it hadn't started and only Dolphin show was the trainers showing how they were training the Dolphins for Blue Horizon's:

I got better pictures of that the second day we went into Seaworld!
We also went to Pet's Ahoy, The Sealion show and Shamu show.


I think we arrived early for the Shamu show and there was a queue to get in which I was surprised with because the other shows the Stadiums were open and you could just walk in and get you seat well in advance.

Day 4 was DISNEY

[petals3485]

im so super excited about harry potter

yeah me to I can't wait to get into that the area looks amazing and there's so much merchandise I want I'm going to be broke It'll be brill though Also can't wait to see the Simpsons ride because that wasn't opened the last time we were there either.

[Chrissy&Tayen]

we did the simpsons ride and it was totally awesome!!!!!! i loved it... in feb i got to see hogwarts from distance.. i cant wait.. brent told me i could by a wand

[petals3485]

we did the simpsons ride and it was totally awesome!!!!!! i loved it... in feb i got to see hogwarts from distance.. i cant wait.. brent told me i could by a wand

Aw brill The Ollivanders vids look brill. Although there's one of those CM'S that looks like a better Ollivander to the others I saw!
I want a Hoodie and Pygmy Puff.. although I heard they were sold out and they're not getting more in until August. Hope they don't sell out again in August and have none in September
Last time I got one Universal Plush, E.T. and one Disney Plush, Stitch, so might do the same this time.

[Chrissy&Tayen]

i usually always get a t shirt.. everywhere i go.. but at HP world.. i will be beside myself on what i want first

i have this thing where if you book a vacation with universals you get to eat breakfast at the 3 broomsticks.. i wonder if there is a away you can just pay extra and get breakfast there..

[petals3485]

I'd say if you go early enough to the park they'll be serving breakfast anyway dunno though. I was wondering similar with the Sci fi restaurant in Disney. Do I have to pre book it or could I just walk in on the day we're in that park?
My thing from every park is pin trading badges and pressed pennies