ORLANDO
2024
08/24/24 - 09/01/24
DAY 1
Day 1 - A trip to Orlando at the end of the Summer has been an annual tradition for almost every year of little Michael's life. We love that last week, going into the Labor Day holiday as many Southern state schools are in session, keeping the crowds lower while the weather is still warm. This year, we changed our plan up a bit with four nights at Disney World and, three nights at Universal Studios (new to us). We were all excited! As usual, we took the first direct Delta flight from Boston to Orlando, made a quick stop at White Castle for lunch, and a grocery store for a few snacks/drinks for the room. This year we decided to stay at Disney's Caribbean Beach resort. The CB resort has a great central location with quick access via the Skyliner (think Ski Gondola) to Epcot and Hollywood Studios. After checking in and a refreshing swim in the resort's pool, we headed to Epcot for a few traditional starter attractions and a delicious Japanese dinner at Shiki-Sai in Epcot's beautiful World Showcase.
DAY 2
Day 2 - Ring, Ring! Our alarm went off at 5:45 AM, earlier than our usual time for work and school. It was time to "Rope Drop" the Magic Kingdom for our first full day at Walt Disney World. Rope drop is a term theme park fans use meaning to get to be at the park at opening to get on the top attractions with minimal waits. We started with the iconic Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain and the new rethemed Tiana's Adventure (previously Splash Mountain); After a busy morning in all the "mountains", we stopped for a lunch break and then had a thrilling ride on the new Tron coaster. This was awesome and big Mike listed it as his new favorite ride. We rode the iconic monorail to EPCOT to spend the afternoon there. For dinner, traditional Neapolitan-style pizza, at one of our favorites, Via Napoli. Today, we went all the way from park open to park close! It was crazy. A quick Skyliner ride home and we were all quickly asleep!
DAY 3
Day 3 - Today, we started early at Hollywood Studios. Our room in the Trinidad section was close to a quick-service restaurant, so we mobile ordered a small breakfast to eat on the Skyliner. The trip to the park was super quick - only about 5 minutes. We headed over to the popular Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance ride. This is an all-encompassing attraction, where you help fend off villains through a variety of preshows and ride scenes. It's a crazy one! We then checked off the fun Slinky Dog roller coaster and had lunch at Woody's Roundup Rodeo BBQ. After lunch, we returned to the Magic Kingdom for some rides and attractions we didn't get through yesterday and ended the night with a late-night ride on Tron, which was really cool to do in the dark. Another long, but fun day in the parks!
DAY 4
Day 4 - OK, are these early mornings getting tough? A little bit, but there is so much to do. We headed back over to Hollywood Studios for some rides that we missed yesterday, including Tower of Terror and the Aerosmith coaster! After being dropped off at the Aerosmith concert, it was time for a snack at Baseline Tap House. This is a Big Mike favorite, as it plays great music (the soundtrack is even available on Spotify) and amazing beers and giant pretzels. After the snack, we had sort of a race to Animal Kingdom, where little Mike and Karen took the bus, and big Mike returned to the hotel for the car. We wanted to grab the car as today was very warm and Animal Kingdom can seem like the hottest park. We met back for the Safari, a farewell to Dinoland, a show, and dinner.
DAY 5
Day 5 - It was check-out day! We ended our time at Disney with a traditional breakfast at the Cape May Cafe within our favorite Disney resort, The Beach Club! Cape May Cafe offers an amazing buffet breakfast alongside a few characters, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy! After breakfast, we headed to our new resort, Loews Royal Pacific at Universal Studios. We had a pleasant surprise; we got right into our room! Once settled, we did a little exploring around the hotel and a quick dip in the pool to take up the afternoon. In the evening, we walked over to City Walk, a shopping and restaurant zone outside the two Universal parks for dinner at the Toothsome Chocolate Emporium. If you go, check out their amazing ice cream sundaes and desserts!
DAY 6
Day 6 - Our first park day at Universal Studio has kicked off. We rope-dropped Islands of Adventures, with its star attraction Hagrids Motorbike Adventure, a great Harry Potter-themed roller coaster! And what a way to wake up! This ride has you whipping around in an old-style motorcycle! Both Universal Parks have impressive Harry Potter theming and an amazing Hogwarts Express train that will bring you from park to park, dropping you off at King's Cross in London! We met people from the UK, that were really impressed with its authenticity. Velocicoaster, the Incredible Hulk Coaster, and many other rides had our heads spinning by mid-day. After a break by the pool, we headed back for a few more rides and dinner at Mythos. This was a fantastic Greek restaurant in the park, voted a top U.S. theme park restaurant, and like everything today, it delivered! Greek meatballs, yum!
DAY 7
Day 7 - Today was mainly focused on the original Universal Studios park, although we did start early again at Islands of Adventure, so we could once again start with Hagrids (which was unfortunately closed) and take the magical train over to London! Once in Diagon Alley, you walk through an entire Harry Potter-themed downtown filled with magical statues, shops, restaurants, and even their own currency. It was great and we spent about an hour just walking around. Michael was even picked to try out a wand in a wand shop demonstration! After lunch, we spent the afternoon walking through the more traditional part of the park with rides themed from all of the US favorites, including the Simpsons, Minions, and Transformers. We ended the day with a walkthrough of the Epic Universe preview center, an exciting look at Universal's third Orlando park, and a stroll through some of Universal's hotels on property.
DAY 8
Day 8 - Our last day is upon us! Today, we spent the entire day at Universal's thrilling waterpark, Volcano Bay. Once again, we started at opening and got a fantastic sunny day for a water park. Volcano Bay has over 20 different slides, alongside a beautiful beach and wave pool. Upon entering, you get a convenient wristband (TapuTapu) that you can use to virtually queue to the most popular slides so that you don't have long waits in line. In addition, if you haven't officially checked out, you can use the wristband for food, drink, and souvenir purchases during your day. Up and down the slides we went, until late in the afternoon. The party week ended as we headed to Orlando (MCO) Airport for our final night at the Hyatt centrally located inside the airport for quick access to our early morning flight back to Boston! ...and with Epic Universe opening next year, who knows, maybe a return trip next Summer??
WHAT WE THOUGHT OF IT
MICHAEL
KAREN
MICHAEL S.
