2012 Family Vacation Pre-Trip Report

Good Evening!! I know I have posted some about our next family vacation but I am ready now to start the pre-trip report.

***First, I have to ask if you know my daughter PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not share the surprises that I will be talking about***

***Second, Jamie if you have made it to this report -- LEAVE NOW!!***

Now we can begin. Let's get started with the Who??

It will be my family which consist of me, my wonderful hubby, Allen and our terrific daughter Jamie. Here's a picture of us from December 2011.

Next, will be my oldest brother, Gerald, his wonderful wife, Pat and their son, Brandon. Here's a picture of them from October 2011 when we were at Zoo Boo.

When?? October 2012

Where?? This is where the fun begins. This will be our most jam packed trip ever and our first trip to really travel with my brother's family unless you count weekend trips at the lake. We are all very excited.

Our trip will start on a Saturday. We will leave our house and drive to Valdosta, GA which is our normal stopping place when heading to Orlando or should I say Disney World. If you read my other post then you know this is a Universal Trip.

And we are staying at the Loew's Royal Pacific hotel.

Well...I have a few surprises for you and Jamie. Yep, that's right we are surprising Jamie on this trip. On the drive down during one of our stops, we will be giving Jamie this.

You see, this is a Walt Disney World Churros Shirt and Jamie's surprise is we are going to Disney World after Universal and my brother's family is joining us!!! She is going to be so excited!! She has been talking about how she misses Disney and she can't believe we will be that close and we can't go. I know we are evil parents keeping this from her but I can't help it. I love to surprise her. Jamie loves Churros and she talks about getting them when we go to Disney so when I saw this new shirt I just had to get it. I called Disney Merchandising and ordered it. It will be the best way ever to tell her. My brother and his family will go to Legoland then meet us at Disney. Jamie thinks we are parting ways after Valdosta. Sneaky we are.

So our trip plan is the following:

Saturday -- Leave home and drive to Valdosta, Ga. My brother's family may be following us down as well. We are all staying at the same hotel and plan to have dinner this night then swim at the hotel.

Sunday -- We will be getting up early so we can all get on the road to head to our parks. My brother and his family will be heading to Legoland.

We will go to Universal Studios as soon as we check in. Since we are onsite guest we get their version of the fastpass called Universal Express which allows us to go to the front of the line for participating rides. Unlike fastpass, it can be used over and over without a time limit. I am anxious to see how this works compared to Disney's Fastpass. I keep telling myself that I am not going to compare the two parks because they are different. This evening we want to hit Citywalk (sorta like  Downtown Disney area) to play the 2 new mini golf courses. They look really cool. We have the park to park tickets so if we finish Universal Studios then we can go over to Islands of Adventure.

Monday -- My brother's family will get up and head over to Disney. They will check in the resort and maybe go to the pool or one of the waterparks. We will go to early entrance to Harry Potter and finish up any other rides that we want to then head to Disney. I hope to get to Disney by lunch time. It just depends on how much we get done the day before. Ready to know what Disney Resort we are staying at????

You got it Port Orleans Riverside in the preferred rooms which are being refurbed.
Monday evening we are planning on going to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party!!!

I can't wait and neither can Allen. It's our favorite time to go. Now the dates haven't been released yet so this may change a few things when they release the dates of the party.

Tuesday -- Animal Kingdom 9-5 then we plan on hitting Magic Kingdom for the evening and fireworks. As I mentioned this trip is jam packed and we only have a short time to go due to several things so I am really packing this trip full. I know we won't see everything but I want to fit in a bunch so Brandon's first trip to Disney World will be magical!!!

Wednesday -- Hollywood Studios then evening EMH at Epcot til midnight.

Thursday -- We will all check out of Port Orleans Riverside, put our luggage in the cars then head to Magic Kingdom or Epcot or both depending on what we want to repeat. Then after our day in the park. We will be heading back to Valdosta for the night.

Friday -- drive home our wonderful vacation will be over. :-(

Now we got very lucky as I got a PIN CODE in the mail. Oh Yeah!! It was for FREE Park Hoppers and Waterpark & more. Now we were not planning on buying these but they will make it easier to fit in everything. We most likely will not have time for the waterparks but it is nice to have. We also are doing the quick service dining plan since this is a short trip, I do not want to spend alot of time on table service meals.

I think that is all the news that I have for now. I am waiting on those MNSHP dates to be released so I can buy our tickets and finalize that portion of the trip.

Thanks for dropping by!!