Ok, so writing a blog so soon after our Christmas trip seems more than a little odd. The flights were booked as back-up in case our Christmas trip was cancelled, and whilst we were out there in December, we had every intention of cancelling once we were home. However, when we came home due to a number of circumstances including the fact that I’d promised we’d take Winnie to Disney once for her birthday before Polly went to secondary school, we decided to go ahead with the trip. I felt so guilty and almost talked myself into cancelling numerous times. Taking the girls out of school is not something I was happy about (despite the fact that I never batted an eyelid when I was teaching, and children had term time holidays). I knew that we were incredibly lucky to go at Christmas, so going back again so soon felt incredibly frivolous. I knew that there would be many people making judgements and snarky remarks, and as someone who suffers terribly with anxiety where even the most innocent comment plays on repeat in my brain, convincing me that I said/ did something terrible, this is something I try to avoid at all costs. But then I realised that cancelling a trip that would mean so much to Winnie and breaking a promise I made to her just because of these reasons was utterly ridiculous. So, I pushed the guilt aside, worked like a madwoman to cover everything workwise that I’d planned to do during our trip, and got busy packing.
Despite being fairly short, this trip was split into three stays so my plan is to write 3 blogs for each section, but who knows how that will pan out!
We carried out our video tests using Prenetics the day before the flight which was very straightforward. We arrived at the airport around 4 hours early just to be safe (we never mind hanging around waiting for flights and it definitely beats the stress of wondering if you’re going to make it on time because of huge, unexpected queues.
As I’d booked these flights at a time when travel was still not allowed, we managed to somehow get an incredibly cheap upper class indirect return flight (although they changed the return flight to direct after a schedule change which wouldn’t have worked, which was a huge bonus), which meant we got to use the 1903 lounge before our flight. It’s really nice in there, so time passed quickly and before we knew it, we were on the flight chilling out watching movies. It seemed like no time before we landed in Atlanta. The queue for immigration took around 20 minutes, then we had to collect our cases, drop them on the transfer carousel and go through security again before catching the internal train system to the new gate. It was getting late by this time and the girls were tired, so we had a quick bite to eat and waited to board. As soon as we took our seats the girls fell asleep, which was good even if the flight was very short.
We had hired a car this time, so when we arrived in Orlando we waited for the cases whilst Steve went to sort that out. We ended up with a minivan upgrade which was fab as no stressing about fitting luggage in.
Our first hotel was Hard Rock at Universal. We had never been before and weren’t sure what to expect but decided that as we had been given free 14-day tickets as our annual passes didn’t get fully used due to the pandemic (as well as the regular renewal discount should we want to reinstate our APs at any time…I have to say Universal’s customer service is excellent) we would start with a couple of nights here to get the express passes. It took a while to check in, but the initial impressions of the hotel were very good and the room itself was lovely with subtle theming. We had chosen a club level room because it wasn’t much more than the regular rooms that were left by the time I booked, but unfortunately the lounge was closed by the time we got there. However, a member of staff went and got a selection of cupcakes and cookies for Steve to take back to the room for the girls, which was lovely.
After a good sleep we headed to Islands of Adventure for early opening. As the weather was set to be really hot and sunny, we planned to use our express passes on everything we really wanted to do at that park in the morning, then visit Universal Studios after a break at the hotel in the evening.
We rode a few rides including some first timers for the girls such as Forbidden Journey and Spiderman. We did plan on also doing Gringotts but knocked that one the head for the morning when the Hogwarts Express broke down for a good length of time. Instead, we headed to the Pteranodon Flyers which is one of the girls’ favourites. We weren’t sure if Polly would be allowed on as she’s over the height limit, but as Winnie was under, they let them on together with Polly as the accompanying person. As they set off the attendant shouted out that it was Winnie’s birthday, which she loved (even though it wasn’t her actual birthday that day!)
As it was really hot, we decided to walk back to the hotel for a few hours in the pool before returning to the parks later (one of the nice things about winter months is that it does cool down in the evening). We did still have to stop at every photo prop on the way out though which is the norm for my two (and they have to have each photo taken twice so they can swap places!) but as Steve was in the world’s longest Starbucks queue it at least killed a bit of time.
The main pool at Hard rock is great. The girls loved the slides and the games, as well as the fact that you could hear the music underwater. The food we ate was delicious and the server who was taking food and drink orders around the pool was absolutely fabulous. I have to say, although Disney will always have my heart, the staff and service at this hotel topped all others during this particular trip. Rooms were thoroughly cleaned both days, supplies of towels/ toiletries were plentiful and the coffee shops/ stores seemed better stocked with much more variety.
Mid-afternoon we decided to head to Universal Studios via Island of Adventure as the girls wanted to ride the Hogwarts Express to Diagon Alley. We met a few characters on our way in which was a nice surprise as we all love a bit of Dr Seuss!
We wanted to try the Gringotts ride as none of us had ridden it (we made a pact when the girls were born that we would wait for them to be old enough to experience any new rides. We didn’t consider that they’d be full on nervous Neris’ so we may have to re-evaluate that if things don’t change!!) The girls were apprehensive, but it was fabulous, and we all loved it.
We then explored Diagon Alley casting all the spells with the interactive wands and visiting the sweet shop to buy edible quills before catching the parade and heading back to the resort for an early night (with Winnie somehow managing to get Steve to give her a piggyback most of the way?) The night wasn’t quite as early as anticipated though as we discovered Polly had lost her room key (it was on a lanyard, but we think it got pulled off when she pulled down the restraints on Gringotts) so Steve had to sort that out. It didn’t take too long though which was good as we were all exhausted.
The next day we had planned on doing quite a lot of rides, but the excitement of heading to Disney was all the girls could think about, so we decided to just cast the spells in Hogsmeade and ride Cat in the Hat (although we also ended up on the Sky Trolley thing which is never fun, but especially not when it’s freezing!!) before heading back to the hotel to pack up and move to the Polynesian.
We did enjoy Universal much more this time and staying at a hotel within walking distance with the use of express passes definitely made it more relaxed. We didn’t do a great deal in terms of rides, but then the girls aren’t big riders, and we really enjoyed just wandering around the parks. I still think that you could get everything easily done in a couple of days though, and while we will definitely utilise the onsite hotel stay on future trips, I can’t see us ever choosing Universal over Disney for a full stay.
Doodle & Peg Do Disney 