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Old 29 Dec 19, 05:37 PM  
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Goldia
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The Bare Necessities - Day 16 Thursday 15th August 2019 Our last day park hopping at Universal

Day 16 One last day at US and IOA and then we have to travel home Thursday 15th August 2019

Welcome to The Bare Necessities Trip Report. I’m Abby and I went to Orlando at the end of July 2019 with my husband David, our children Max (14) and Kate (12). We’ve been to Orlando before But this trip was different as we had my parents Jac and Tom with us, they will be referred to as Mum and Dad or Grandma and Grandad throughout the report. I was so excited to take them with us as this was their first time to WDW.

Day 16


We had decided we would head into US for the early entry hour and do a couple of rides there before getting the Hogwarts Express over to IOA, do a lap of honour at Island’s just fitting in our favourites, then catch the Hogwarts Express back to US (we hadn’t done the return journey yet) and fit in everything we had missed at US before eating a late lunch at Citywalk and leaving for the airport. Phew it sounds like an exhausting day, no different to all the previous days then Fortunately we had a late flight so it was doable!

The alarm went off at 6.30am this morning and we got ourselves ready for our final day at Universal. There wasn’t that much to pack away as we hadn’t unpacked everything for the last couple of days at RPR so we only had to shove our wet stuff (still wet from the wet rides yesterday) into some carrier bags and hope it wasn’t too yucky by the time we got home. It wasn’t too bad as they were damp as opposed to dripping. After showering and popping our PJs in we were ready.

We still had a mountain of Disney snacks left still to consume and the kids both had a caramel apple for breakfast, starting to get healthier now we’re having to head home .



Dad and mum were ready before us today! We left our cases downstairs and made our way to parks for the last time.

We got a photo at the entrance by Despicable Me. The photo guy was making us do all sorts of poses. We had to wave, give a peace sign, thumbs up we had a whole photo shoot thing going on.





When we got to US I realised that the early entry hour was actually not really worth it as I found out we couldn’t use the express passes for this hour. I know that is pretty poor on the planning front and it’s my own fault. Also, very few of the rides were actually open. We hadn’t done Fast and Furious and as Max loves the movie series he was keen to try this out, but this didn’t open until later .

We wandered towards Diagon Alley, taking in Jaws first.





Aaahh, it is an awesome sight.





We went into Olivander’s, Mum and Dad both loved the wand ceremony.

We all wanted to ride Escape from Gringotts and even though we couldn’t use the express passes we decided to just go for it as there wasn’t really anything else we wanted to do. It said it was a 30 minute wait, which was pretty accurate.

It was a fab ride. Afterwards we went around to Kings Cross station, it was now just gone 9am and we used the express passes to get the train over to Island’s.



In the queue we had the Chip and Dale cheese bites thingy’s.



Plus the kids ate one of the chocolate chip cookies while waiting on the platform for the Hogwarts express.



We had a carriage to ourselves again, which was great.



Kate cast the expecto patronum spell when the dementors come onto the train!

Hagrids was still closed and had been closed all morning so I was glad that we hadn’t wasted time trying to get on it.

Grapes, apples and other fruit pots were eaten on the way into the Forbidden Journey.





This ride just gets better and better





We walked around through Jurassic Park, but didn’t ride it today.



We wandered on towards Kong and went on this again.



We had the butter toffee peanuts while waiting to get on Kong.



These were delicious and we all wished we had another bag of those. They were gone in no time.

We decided to go on Spiderman again. On the way we saw lots of the characters on their quad bikes.





Still going on the snacks with one of the packs of Oreo’s.







Of course, we made time to go on Hulk, one last time for this trip. It was great. I don’t seem to have the photo for it though which is a shame.

We powered on through Seuss Landing.






Back to Hogsmeade to catch the train back over to the studio’s park.







It was still only 11.30am and we had done pretty well this morning riding our favourite rides.



It was now time to try out Fast and Furious. There was a bit of a wait here.





Another pot of the Chip and Dale cheese bites while in the queue.



I have to say this ride was somewhat underwhelming. We had the front row, which is probably not the best position as most of the action is to the side and it felt like it was behind us really.



We were still munching on the snacks and had some of the shortbread rounds.



Over to Transformers as this had gone tech on us the other day so we wanted to ride it properly.



We were just in time for the 1pm showing of the Horror Make Up show which we all really love.



The cast were so great. There was a little boy, Zach from the UK, who was selected to be part of the show and he did look a little bit nervous as they were talking to him. It was a good show and the kids love it and were so glad we had time to see it.



After the show we caught some of the Blues Brothers



Then we went around to see Shrek.



The kids wanted one last ride on Rip Ride Rockit.



So, while they rode that I went off and upgraded our tickets to Annual Passes. This was really straight forward. Our original tickets were the 2 park 3 day park hopper passes and the cost to upgrade to the seasonal pass was £0 I was pretty pleased with that.



We could see that the clouds were darkening and we knew it was going to rain soon so we hustled out of the park to get some lunch.

The kids had already decided on Hard Rock Café for lunch.



I went for the Hurricane cocktail, Bacardi, orange, mango, pineapple juice and grenadine.



Absolutely lovely and a great cocktail to end the holiday with.

Dave and Mum both had one as well. We also ordered a 2nd each. Only $10 each, bargain!

Kate had the BBQ bacon cheeseburger.



Max, Dave and Mum had the Original Legendary which is a bacon cheeseburger with an onion ring. They all loved their burgers.



I went with the Local Legendary which has fried mac and cheese in the burger.



I pulled my burger apart. The burger itself was good. The fried mac and cheese was also tasty, but the middle was cold and so while I ate the edges the middle sort of put me off a bit and I left that part as who wants cold mac and cheese.



Dad didn’t want anything to eat here, but the server asked if he’d like an extra plate and so he shared some of Mum’s.

2nd round of drinks, just as good as the first.



This was our last Orlando meal, it was a good one, if you forget about the middle of the mac and cheese being cold. I wasn’t so bothered. I know if I’d told the server they would have brought me another, but there was no point as I wasn’t going to be able to manage to eat anymore anyway. The Hurricanes were good and went someway towards numbing the pain of knowing we had to leave . As did the Annual Passes I got before we left the parks .

After lunch we once again waited out the rain, well we waited until it was just spitting and not torrential.





We slowly walked back to the hotel to collect the bags.

There was a bit of a luau going on in the lobby.





But we didn't really have time for all that as it was now gone 4pm and the flight was due to leave at 7.35pm.

Both Dave and me ordered the Lyft cars and Dave went off first with Mum and Kate. Dave got charged a surge fee so got charged twice £16.27 and £17.46, but when we got home he claimed a refund and got back £13.83, so it ended up costing him £19.90. Kate took a photo of Grandma as she fell asleep in the car.

Our driver was pretty chatty about football (soccer) to Dad. Me and Max were in the back and Max had a nap (I didn’t take a photo). The radio was on and I just managed to hold back the tears as the song Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) by Green Day came on the radio. It was the perfect song to send us off to the airport with . The ride cost me £19.61.

We got rid of the cases at check in and then took our time looking around the shops and taking it in turns to go to the toilets and get changed into our comfy clothes for the flight. Dad even had a shave in the toilets, which we all thought was a bit weird but oh well.

We went through security and Kate was feeling a bit off with a sore throat, Max was very tired and I was pretty sad to be going home.

We got the monorail over and slowly walked to the gate and just sat around really waiting for boarding. All the other planes boarded before us.

We due to take off at 7.35pm. In the end boarding started at 8.05pm so a bit late but nevermind, of course they made up the delay and we landed on time in the morning. I was in row 35 with both the kids and the others were in the row behind us.

The food on the flight home was ok but not as good as the outbound journey.

The usual drinks and pretzels were brought out. Kids had cokes.



I had gin and tonic and a red wine for the meal, which I had finished before the meal arrived. I was watching Four Weddings and a Funeral.





The kids were brought the child meals before the main meal was served. They had chicken nuggets and mash.



The nuggets were so bad that Max didn’t eat them and he let me try them. These were the worst chicken nuggets I have ever tasted in my life. We were both cracking up about this and we must have looked at bit odd, but we found it hilarious.



Max ate the roll, which he described as soggy and cold. There was also a mini kitkat which he ate.

Kate ate precisely none of her meal, although maybe she had the kitkat later in the flight or for breakfast? I’d be surprised if she passed that up, but she had now caught Dad’s cold and had a rather runny nose throughout the flight. She was not in the mood for eating plane food and was feeling pretty miserable.

I had the chicken curry which I actually quite liked.



This was pretty good.



I didn’t bother with the salad or the roll. The pudding and the cheese and cracker were fine though.

We all had a nap on the way home, although the kids would say they didn't sleep a wink as they can't sleep on planes. Neither of them wanted to wake up when breakfast was served though.

The breakfast was pretty awful as it was a creamy herb filled croissant and a berry cereal bar type thing.



The only difference between the child and adult breakfast was that the child breakfast was served in a cardboard box! Neither of the kids ate their breakfast. I nibbled the croissant but that was it.

And there we have it. We were back in the UK. We collected the luggage and got a taxi back to the hotel to pick up the cars. This was all straightforward and no problems The journey home was pretty good as it often seems to be really wet and miserable. But this time there wasn’t any rain and we were home around lunch time.

I alternated between napping and laundry. The kids alternated from napping and TV watching (Kate) and playstationing (Max). We decided to try and get back onto UK time and watch a movie together in the evening. We put Spider-man into the Spider-verse on and well I was asleep within 20 minutes I think and Max wasn't far behind me. All of a sudden I was woken up by Dave shouting "There's a bat in the room" and sure enough there was a bat in the room. Me and the kids sat on the sofa like we were petrified, Dave jumped up and opened the patio doors and fortunately it did fly out within a couple of seconds. We were all a bit shocked by this. We had no idea where it had come from. We've had birds in the house before but never a bat! This one seemed to come out of nowhere. We wondered if it had been in the house long, we hoped it had just flown down the chimney or come in while we had been airing the house with the windows open all day. Who knows where it came from? But it sure was a weird thing to have to deal with on travel home day. Well, I say deal with - watch someone else deal with is a better description for what I did!

So, that really is it now. Once again we had a marvelous time and I’m glad to have been able to share it with you all.

Thank you to everyone who has read our 2019 Orlando adventure and special thanks to everyone who posted a reply I always enjoy reading your comments and sharing our story with you.


Statistics

Steps 19,113
Attractions 10 rides plus the 2 shows – not bad for travel home day

Coming Soon
I can't resist the lure of one last visit down memory lane so I will do a highs, lows and future plans post. There were loads of highs and a couple of lows. But I don’t think there will be anyone who has got this far in the report who doesn’t know we will be back again next summer. Next year will be even bigger and even better, with more hotel hops than ever before!
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2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
2018: Orlando. Berlin.
2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC.
2020: DLP.
2021: Jamaica. Rome.
2022: Orlando.
2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto.
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Old 29 Dec 19, 06:02 PM  
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What a fab trip Abby - sounds like you all had such a great time. I’d love to hear what your parents thought about it all in the highs and lows.

Can’t believe there was a bat in the house, I bet you thought you were hallucinating or dreaming!

Thanks so much for taking the time to write it all up, always lovely to read about your holiday. So exciting that you’re back again soon!
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Old 29 Dec 19, 07:00 PM  
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Goldia
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Originally Posted by MrsSilverStar View Post
What a fab trip Abby - sounds like you all had such a great time. I’d love to hear what your parents thought about it all in the highs and lows.

Can’t believe there was a bat in the house, I bet you thought you were hallucinating or dreaming!

Thanks so much for taking the time to write it all up, always lovely to read about your holiday. So exciting that you’re back again soon!
I made my parents a photo book of the trip as a present for Christmas and it was lovely hearing them reminisce as they looked at the photos. I've already asked Dave and the kids for their highlights so I'll have to sit Mum and Dad down and ask them too.

The bat was freaky, you're right it was a bizarre wake up. I made it to the end of the film after that though
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New pre trip report - Summer 2024

Link to all my completed trip reports
2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
2018: Orlando. Berlin.
2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC.
2020: DLP.
2021: Jamaica. Rome.
2022: Orlando.
2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto.
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Old 29 Dec 19, 07:02 PM  
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Thank you for taking the time to write this I have really enjoyed reading along and looking forward to reading along with your next trip
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Old 29 Dec 19, 08:16 PM  
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Originally Posted by minnie52 View Post
Thank you for taking the time to write this I have really enjoyed reading along and looking forward to reading along with your next trip
I love writing it up and sharing it all just makes it more fun I'm glad you've enjoyed reading it all

I'm excited about the next trip. It's going to be different again, back to just the four of us, but longer than we've done before and maybe I'll be more laid back although that seems doubtful.
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New pre trip report - Summer 2024

Link to all my completed trip reports
2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
2018: Orlando. Berlin.
2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC.
2020: DLP.
2021: Jamaica. Rome.
2022: Orlando.
2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto.
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Old 30 Dec 19, 08:45 PM  
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I'm sad that we've come to the end of your fabulous trip but you certainly managed to fit in some last minute fun before heading off to the airport. Annual pass upgrade for free is a real bargain too. I'm now looking forward to hearing all about next years trip. Very soon you will be able to say that it is this year.
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Old 31 Dec 19, 10:52 AM  
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Brilliant trip, I've enjoyed reading your report as usual, thanks for sharing
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Old 31 Dec 19, 10:58 AM  
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Originally Posted by jothp View Post
I'm sad that we've come to the end of your fabulous trip but you certainly managed to fit in some last minute fun before heading off to the airport. Annual pass upgrade for free is a real bargain too. I'm now looking forward to hearing all about next years trip. Very soon you will be able to say that it is this year.
It was a great last day and we were really appreciative of the express passes as it meant we could do all our favourite rides. It was great fun.

I'm looking forward to using the annual passes this summer. I need to remind myself of the block out dates for seasonal passes actually...I can't remember if it runs to the end of July.

Originally Posted by yellowrose78 View Post
Brilliant trip, I've enjoyed reading your report as usual, thanks for sharing
Thank you I'm glad you enjoyed it.
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New pre trip report - Summer 2024

Link to all my completed trip reports
2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
2018: Orlando. Berlin.
2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC.
2020: DLP.
2021: Jamaica. Rome.
2022: Orlando.
2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto.
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Old 31 Dec 19, 03:55 PM  
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You done well with all the rides and snacks today. I actually like how you've done Universal at the end and used the snacks for food there ... such a fab idea!

Oh that's brilliant, so glad to see you've upgraded! It's great not having to pay anything isn't it! We're still trying to figure out how to upgrade our Universal annual passes to AP's again

There's nothing worse than cold food. I had an issue at Wetherspoons a few weeks ago where the bacon was stone cold ... to the point it was white! Apparently 'it's supposed to come like that' so I sent it back politely requested it's at least warmed up as it had clearly been made and stored then chucked on the burger ... sorry for the rant

at Dad having a shave in the toilets. Return food never is as nice is it?

The bat would have freaked me out ... I know they can't harm you but there's just something about them ... I think it's because they're so fast

Another fab report Abby, thank you so so much for sharing. I've loved following along again and I really can't wait for the 2020 report ... oh and the final thoughts ... I hope mum and dad would like to return with you again! Xx
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Old 31 Dec 19, 04:31 PM  
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Well that was a great travel day, you managed to do loads and also eat lots of Disney snacks! The burgers at the Hard Rock look great (except your cold in the middle mac n cheese) we have only ever had drinks there, I will need to put that on the list for next year.

We also upgraded to Annual Passes while we were there in the summer. It’s a good feeling knowing you are going to get such great value out of your park tickets!

Sounds like your flight was normal, average food, a movie and not too much sleep.

Your report was great and it lovely to follow along on your adventures! Thank you
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