The Linus Trip to The Darkside or Our Family Vacation to Universal**UPDATED 5/16/07**

[thptrek]

Tracie, love the pictures. How is the neck?

 

[tlinus]

Day 5 - Sunday 4/29/07 - POOL DAY!!! (by far the most EXPENSIVE day of the trip!!)

Today started with a load of laundry.....yeah, we only did carry ons and I usually do more laundry on vacation than I do at home

We decided around 11:30 that today was going to be our "down" day and we were going to hang by the pool all day! The kids and I got ready and DH kinda just stayed behind for a little to watch some of the NFL Draft Day 2. We got really good seats near the Beach Club, but not on the sand today......tired of sandy shoes and bags and whatnot!

They had great games for the kids (and adults) by the pool from 2-6. The lady who ran the show was GREAT! She had her own music and really kept the feeling happy and light! Frank introduced himself right away and told her he was 5 - she thought it was his birthday and pulled him up on the "stage". After she announced it, he said its not my birthday so she asked him to dance instead.....my guy busted a move for everyone and got a big round of applause!!!

There were the Hula Hoops Kait made it to the final 3:

Court lost in the Hula Hoop:

Pudding Eating Contest for 5 and under (Frank asked for a spoon ):

Kait won the Hot Potato Contest:

Frank looks like he is winning the "drown your older sister contest" here (oh wait, that wasn't one of the games ) :

We ordered Wings, 2 Grilled Cheese kids meals and LOTS of drinks It was a great day and VERY relaxing!! I so LOVE our Universal Vacations!!!

Lounge offered the Wing Bar, Pigs in a blanket and veggie tray this night.

 

[silverangel879]

Subscribing! I'm loving your report and photos...I'm going to Universal in July, staying in HRH- Club Room, so thank you for sharing even the Lounge Menus!!!

 

[loribell]

Love the pics! Those kids are so cute!

 

[bubba's mom]

Tracie,
Thanks for the next couple of days....i am SO enjoying your TR!!!! I hope it never ends I'll tell ya something...everyone looks like they are having a fab time, except B#3....he is crackin' me up! So cute and yet so funny....I'm lovin' it!!! Lookin' forward to more.....

Hope you are feelin' better.....and you are getting some thicker styrofoam on your car!

 

[keishashadow]

Really special pics!

luv the one of son & bread bowl (i luv enchanted oak too-yum)

we must have missed the pool games last trip; of course we still tend to commando (old habits die hard )...what time did they get rolling?

 

[Eeyore's Tailfinder]

Subscribing... so I can find the thread later on

 

[disneyfan67]

To the OP: I have to say that this is one of the best trip reports I have read in a while. I really enjoyed this and I caught myself laughing at the picture of your son "trying to drown his older sister contest". That's a picture you should have framed and is one of those classic family vacation pictures that people/family members laugh at for years when it gets pulled out. I really liked how you did the report and the naming of everyone, Bean, etc, and the pudding video was pretty cool as well. I'm subscribing to this and I have to make sure my wife sees this report as well, she will get a kick out of it as well. Job well done, IMO and I hope you're feeling better soon.

 

[tlinus]

To the OP: I have to say that this is one of the best trip reports I have read in a while. I really enjoyed this and I caught myself laughing at the picture of your son "trying to drown his older sister contest". That's a picture you should have framed and is one of those classic family vacation pictures that people/family members laugh at for years when it gets pulled out. I really liked how you did the report and the naming of everyone, Bean, etc, and the pudding video was pretty cool as well. I'm subscribing to this and I have to make sure my wife sees this report as well, she will get a kick out of it as well. Job well done, IMO and I hope you're feeling better soon.

Thank you so much for your comments. We love that picture as well.....its in a frame on the computer desk

 

[tlinus]

Subscribing... so I can find the thread later on

Thanks! I would appreciate any input!!

 

[tlinus]

Really special pics!

luv the one of son & bread bowl (i luv enchanted oak too-yum)

we must have missed the pool games last trip; of course we still tend to commando (old habits die hard )...what time did they get rolling?

thanks keisha!!

the pool games started at 2pm

 

[tlinus]

Subscribing! I'm loving your report and photos...I'm going to Universal in July, staying in HRH- Club Room, so thank you for sharing even the Lounge Menus!!!

Thank you so much. I am having a really great time writing the report.....it has been said before, but its helping me relive the vacation. I may print it out for the kids, too!

 

[tlinus]

Thanks for all of the comments on my trip report - its been alot of fun. I still have our last full day plus more pictures and a review of our final night's dinner at Bubba Gump.

 

[loribell]

I can't wait to hear about Bubba Gump's. We may try it out on our trip.

 

[Melissa2480]

Subscribing....
OMG your son has me cracking up right now. The video is soo cute and that pic of him "drowning" his siter is hilarious. I love all the pics. Makes me want to cancel my WH reservations and book at the Hard Rock. I'm so envious right now
Great job!!

 

[Eeyore's Tailfinder]

LOVED the TR and absolutely love the pics! I love trip reports with loads of photos in them!

You're right, that definately has made me more excited to go!

Can't wait for the next installment!!

 

[AlexandNessa]

Hey, Tracie .... yes you! Stop procratinating! Get moving!

Seriously, I have been meaning to ask you ... did Roger treat you to a Stevie Ray Vaughn marathon when he picked you up and dropped you off? Granted, he's one of the best guitarists ever, but all of it sounds the same to me after a while, and I didn't say anything, but had enough. We were wondering if he did the same thing with young kids in the car? We've only ever had Bob, who we are much more musically compatible with.

 

[tlinus]

Hey, Tracie .... yes you! Stop procratinating! Get moving!

Seriously, I have been meaning to ask you ... did Roger treat you to a Stevie Ray Vaughn marathon when he picked you up and dropped you off? Granted, he's one of the best guitarists ever, but all of it sounds the same to me after a while, and I didn't say anything, but had enough. We were wondering if he did the same thing with young kids in the car? We've only ever had Bob, who we are much more musically compatible with.

yeah.....but it really was on low because Frank was talking a mile a minute

really didn't bother us toooooo much, but it does tend to sound the same after awhile! He was SO nice though. he didn't seem to get annoyed with Frank's chatter in either direction.

 

[Holly Goheavy]

Thanks for a fabulous trip report! My son is 4 so I'm showing him the pics of your little boy-he's getting really excited!

Now I'm bummed we couldn't book HRH for our trip in July!

 

[tlinus]

Ok folks, so here it is:

Day 6 - Monday 4/30/07 -------> Our last full day


The day started like any other, Breakfast in the lounge for me and the beans. DH wasn't "feeling" the bagels and fruit today. He wanted a good-old-fashioned-heart-stopping-artery-clogging-breakfast-sandwich. Well had we had a car, I would have been able to run out to McD's on Vineland.....but unfortunately that was not a possibility. I went to Emack's to see about finding my man some eggs, breakfast meat and whatever else slapped onto a bagel, croissant, toast....ANYTHING!!! $13.00 later I emerged from The Kitchen with one HEAVY sandwich. He only ate half, I had the other as I only had some fruit from the lounge.

Looking out the window, I noticed a bunch of stuff on the front lawn:

I later found out that it was the filming of Bring It On 4....pretty neat to see all of the kids and film crew, etc!

Our last day was at IOA. We arrived once again around 11-12 and again took the right after POE.

Had to hit the Cat in the Hat (by now that fish was creeping me out-moving eyebrows and all) but our ride was a bit different because DH and I decided to start looking up at all the mechanics, back as the scenes reset, etc.....the kids were loving every minute of their last rides. DH & B1 went of to do the Hulk (twice - and got pizza) and we agreed to meet in front of One Fish. B2 & B3 got on twice because there was NO waiting! We did some browsing in the shops, hit the Caro-Seuss -el and met up for a family ride on One Fish. Walked to the High in the Sky ride - it was down for the time being (that was the first broken down ride the entire trip, just sayin').

Onto the Lost Continent for the last time. We weren't really into Poseidon or Sinbad today, just kind of wandered around a bit. Stopped in the Alchemy, DH & B1 - 2 loops on Dueling Dragons and then onto the Flying Unicorn for a ride.

Over to Jurassic Park, did the Camp Jurassic thing again, watched kids rock climb, JPRA, The Discovery Center and moved onto Toon Lagoon.

At this point we knew we were going to have a nice dinner and really didn't want to get wet, so we did more shop browsing.

Onto Marvel and Spiderman, Hulk and Storm Force Acceleration. Did alot of People watching and of course, shopping in the Spidey Store! It was here that we bid farewell to the Islands of Adventure. It was really sad walking through the turnstile for the last time. But we will be back - we may have seemed tired of the parks, but we never get tired of them.

CityWalk was our destination, more specifically Bubba Gumps. We made our way to the restaurant and found it to be quite empty! We were seated in 10 minutes (not too sure what the hold up was about) and really took in the atmosphere. We were in a booth in the upper level right next to the bar. We ordered:

DH: Cajun shrimp appetizer (it had a kick!), Shrimp stuffed with crabmeat for his dinner ( got about halfway through that one ) and some awesome Kona brand of beer ( got a fancy schmanzy glass pilsner souvie too! )

Me: House salad for starters then the Coconut Shrimp! OMGoodness, it was delicious!!! Not too sweet, just perfect!!

B1: Kids Popcorn Shrimp and a slushy drink (plastic souvie cup!)

B2 & 3: Kids Pepperoni Pizza (which each came with a whole plate of fries as well! and in hindsight, they could have actually SHARED one kids meal with all of the food they got!!) B2 had to have a slushy drink and B3 just got a sprite.

Total for all of the food & drink plus tax and tip for a family of 5? $125.00 - not bad at all !!​

Stuffed to the gills we rolled out onto CityWalk and wandered around. Went up the escalator and just enjoyed the quiet and calm and took a few shots of CityWalk.

B1 was excited to find the Starbucks and we found ourselves at the Universal Studios Store. Spent a good bit of time in there trying to decide what to get for who and what NOT to get. You can really break the bank in that place!! LOL!! Well this is where the day turned ugly. REALLY UGLY. 5-year-old-I-want-a-bag-of-rocks-AND-a-bag-of-magnets-or-I-am-going-to-have-a-temper-tantrum-ugly!!!!! So we left, B#3 screaming the whole way BACK to HRH!! (If you saw us, sorry! If you didn't, consider yourself lucky!!)

Once back in the safety and confines of our room, B3 had a timeout and we ordered up the Complimentary movie (from the birthday pack of Kait's) We chose Night at the Museum. Really cute movie! We enjoyed that and went down for some Ice Cream at Emack's around 9:00. We sat by the pool and ate the Ice Cream and watched the very end of the Dive In Movie which was Lilo and Stitch 2.

All in all, we loved our vacation. We took the Good with the bad, the beauty of the parks and hotel with the ugly(temper) and had a very relaxing time. I think that maybe we spent one too many days there in the parks though. I know, I know, I know-its like blasphemy to say that......but with a car we would have done another day offsite - like Sea World. We weren't really into the whole shuttle to and from thing. So for the future, we will stay onsite, but we will definately have a car so we can "break up" the trip so to speak.

The next day we checked out at noon and Roger was waiting at the front door for us to take us back to the airport where things went smooth until boarding - http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=18459470&postcount=72

But we had a rather uneventful flight and returned home safe and sound.

So there you have it, all wrapped up in a neat little package. The Linus Family Trip to The Darkside.......hope you enjoyed!!