I’m sure we’ve forgotten something… April 2019 - Highs, Lows and Future Plans

[Rescuer]

Highs, Lows and Future Plans

Index

Highs

Special Mentions

Universal - I never used to be a massive fan but every year we have gone we have just had a better and better experience. We all said that we felt the team members there were great. I don’t know if it was because we arrived in the calm between spring break and Easter where stress levels of staff had just totally dropped but the day we arrived onsite every single team member we encountered was amazing. Throughout our stay we experienced great service, I think we encountered 1 that didn’t seem overly happy with her job.

Express pass - this changes your holiday completely. We were fine the few days we didn’t have it because we had done so many rides with it earlier in the holiday. Without this we wouldn’t have had our amazing big rides day or been able to ride barges 5 times in a row.

Aventura - I didn’t really know what to expect, not all reviews I read were positive and we went for this as part of our split stay to keep the costs down. We loved it here, our room was awesome with a fantastic view. It was clean, housekeeping were great, the pool was nice and I liked urban pantry as it had loads of choices.

Ds and the big rides - this was a total high. We were so pleased for him. It was amazing that he not only mustered up the courage to try all these rides but that he did them more than once and truly loved them.

Experiences at universal - ds was chosen at Ollivanders and picked on during the horror make up show, these were 2 definite highlights for him. He can be quite shy and was worried about being picked to choose a wand yet he joined in happily with both things.

Happily ever after - we’ve seen this loads but it was a new experience for df. She loved it and it was nice for us to see her reactions to such an amazing show.

Top Rated

Hotel unanimous vote - Aventura

Park unanimous vote - Universal

Ride
1 Hulk -me and Ds - Gringotts - DF
2 Gringotts - me and DS - Rip Ride Rocket - DF
3 Dr doom in dark - me and DF - Mummy - DS

Shows
Horror make up show - me and DS
Laugh floor -DF

Night time event
Happily ever after - unanimous vote

Pool
Aventura - DS
Royal Pacific - Me and DF

Snack
Cinnamon bun doughnut- at Voodoo Doughnuts - DF
Pizza pretzel - Universal - DS
Dole whip - Magic Kingdom - Me

Drink
watermelon icee - Universal - DF
pina colada icee - Universal - Me and DS

Meals
1 Cowfish - Me and DF - Sushi at Urban Pantry - DS
2 Breadbox - DF - Confisco Grill - Me - Skippers - DS
3 Confisco Grill - DF - Lombards - Me - Panda Express - DS

Shopping items
DF - Mother of Dragons top at Box Lunch, Clinique skincare, Minion pjs
DS- Walle backpack, shirt (Box Lunch), Pop figures (think geek)
W - Alex and Ani via Fairytale Personal Shopper, Teacher of All Things top (Universal), peppermint bark via Fairytale Personal Shopper.

Special mention from DF
Sapphire Falls - Lobby smell - she loved walking through here just for the smell.

Lows

Not many.

Special Mentions

Sephora - Florida mall - not major but a disappointing experience, both Df and I thought the customer service was shocking, apart from the girl on check out. We were both looking forward to stocking up on a selection of things and we both bought stuff but way less than we would have had we encountered someone helpful. I’ve always had great help/service at the one at Disney Springs.

Pop century - I wanted to love it and there were positives, the room, the buses, proximity to AOA. However, we did not get off to a great start. Now I’m totally aware a request for early check is not guaranteed but I find it hard to believe there was no rooms at 2.30pm plus when we asked again 40 minutes later the cast member we spoke to seemed stumped as to why we didn’t have a room if we were not waiting on a particular room.
The power washing wake up call outside my room though was what really spoiled it. If we’d been there for 2 weeks and this had happened once it might not have coloured my judgement of Pop quite as much. Same if we’d not been out so late or if we had been up early I might not have been so annoyed. Not a great way to end the holiday.

Bottom Rated

Worst Hotel
Pop - Unanimous vote

Worst Ride
Fast and furious - DS
Transformers - DS
Trolley in the sky - DF

Food
Leaky cauldron
Starbucks Chicken sandwich - Both unanimous

Service
Sephora Florida mall - DF and I totally agreed on this.

Special mention from DF
Toilets at Universal - she is way taller than me and found the toilets really low and for some reason they constantly flushed while she was using them, which I have to say led to lots of giggling from me in the cubical next door.

Future plans

Well before this holiday was even planned we’d booked Disney for this summer.
Plans finalised we are staying at the following hotels:

Rosen plaza - international drive for 3 nights.
Hard rock hotel at universal for 2 nights.
Port Orleans French quarter for 15 nights with ddp ( just hoping early morning corridor power washing is not a thing there)

2020 - no Florida ds and Dh said... now ds has a new found love of roller coasters he wants to do universal, SeaWorld and Busch gardens - I won’t take much persuading. We shall see and are considering renewing our universal annual passes in the summer with this in mind.

Thanks to everyone who read and commented, in a little out of my comfort zone doing full trip reports so all the positive comments have been lovely.

[minnie29]

Sounds like you had a fabulous holiday, great trip report! I see that you are off there again soon. We went over the spring break too and had a fab time and are booked to go again in September. Strange but I feel guilty that we get to go twice in one year, so seeing someone else is also going again this year makes me feel a bit less guilty lol

[Cutiepie]

Great trip report ! Thanks for sharing your holiday

[Kat22]

Great report, thank you!

[Palm trees]

I really enjoyed reading your report. I like a highs and lows summary too, you definitely had more highs!

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by minnie29

Sounds like you had a fabulous holiday, great trip report! I see that you are off there again soon. We went over the spring break too and had a fab time and are booked to go again in September. Strange but I feel guilty that we get to go twice in one year, so seeing someone else is also going again this year makes me feel a bit less guilty lol

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Thanks for reading. Don't feel guilty... We were also there at Christmas if that makes you feel even better. I don't feel guilty but I do find I feel a bit embarrassed when people ask if we are doing anything in the holidays. However, life is short and we love it.

Originally Posted by Cutiepie

Great trip report ! Thanks for sharing your holiday

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You are welcome, thanks for reading.

Originally Posted by Kat22

Great report, thank you!

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Thank you for reading.

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by Palm trees

I really enjoyed reading your report. I like a highs and lows summary too, you definitely had more highs!

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Thanks Palm trees. It is always fun to compile a top and bottom rated list on the way home.

There were very few lows and in all honesty the only one that left me very unhappy was the power washing.

[minnie29]

Originally Posted by Rescuer

Thanks for reading. Don't feel guilty... We were also there at Christmas if that makes you feel even better. I don't feel guilty but I do find I feel a bit embarrassed when people ask if we are doing anything in the holidays. However, life is short and we love it.



You are welcome, thanks for reading.



Thank you for reading.

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That's what my DH says - never know what tomorrow is going to bring so do it all now while we can

[FloridaFairy]

Thank you for doing this Rescuer... for taking the time ...

I love reading trip reports especially this time of year ...gets me so excited...

Neve apologise for doing what you love ...

Xx Ff Xx

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by minnie29

That's what my DH says - never know what tomorrow is going to bring so do it all now while we can

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So true. Plus I'm not sure with what I would do with all my sparetime if I gave up these types of holidays, no more planning, trip reports, reading the dibb, watching Tim Tracker...

Originally Posted by FloridaFairy

Thank you for doing this Rescuer... for taking the time ...

I love reading trip reports especially this time of year ...gets me so excited...

Neve apologise for doing what you love ...

Xx Ff Xx

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Thanks for reading and your lovely comment Florida Fairy.
You are nearly in double digits, after that the holiday will be here in no time. I might even have another trip report started before you go.