The one with the Fidelius Charm...hopefully...a Sept 2021 pre-trip report

PixieT78

Mouseketeer
Joined
Oct 16, 2014
Hello all! I am going to attempt to actually complete a pre-trip report for this one...mostly so I don't annoy my besties too much with trip talk since I can't talk to the husband about this one!!

We'd been tossing around the idea of an epic WDW/US trip for awhile, but had mostly been as an abstract "someday when we can come for longer/have more money" kind of thing. In 2019 (if not earlier) we decided that his 50th was the perfect time to do this trip (it might even have been 2018 when we went down for my 40th).

But then...COVID. After it wiped out our 2020 plans, we still clung to the hope of making 2021 work. As we got later into 2020 and moved into 2021, it started to look less and less likely. With vaccines not expected for our age group until August/September 2021 (we're in Canada), we made the decision to postpone our trip until we could do it properly, hopefully 2022. I figured even if things opened up, it was going to be so busy with pent up demand (which I shall now refer to as revenge travel now that I've seen that term on here ha) that it was not worth trying to force in a trip of a lifetime during that time period. It seems so far crowd levels are showing I might be right! Of course DH was massively disappointed but agreed it was the right choice. Fast forward a couple of months, we decide that we are also going to sneak in a trip to US in May 2022 as there is zero chance either of us are waiting until Sept 2022 to go to our favourite place!

For those that don't know, the vaccinations have been going very well in Canada and timelines were moved up significantly. We both had our first shot in April and had a lovely date night to get our second shot 8 weeks later. And then the following Monday, the Canadian government announced that fully vaccinated Canadians returning to Canada will no longer need to do the mandatory 3 day hotel stay or the 14 day quarantine. We're down to just testing pre-arrival and on arrival. Well, that was good enough for the wheels in my brain to start churning - do we try to salvage a trip for his birthday this year?? But wait...can I pull this off as a surprise??? Hmmm...

Started mentioning it to a few people (coworkers, my boss, my parents who we are also booked to see in October) to confirm that I was completely insane to even consider this. Surprisingly, that was not the reaction I got at all. I absolutely expected more people to say they were unsure on the idea/travelling to the US this "soon" but literally no one did! So with a cancellable flight and cancellable hotel reservations...I booked us for travel Sept 22-27, staying at the Royal Pacific. Eeek! We fly overnight which is surprisingly the most direct flight at the moment (we're flying WJ) but is also one we've done many times as I hate wasting a whole day travelling/am cheap so like that there is no need for a hotel for that night. We're probably getting too old for this (ha) but it is better than 2 stops!

Intros coming up next!
 
I’m in for the read here !

Yay happy to have you!

Yay! I’ll be there during that time this year.

Awesome! Have you done September before? It is our most common time of year to travel I think but I get pretty obsessive about checking out the national hurricane centre for about 6 weeks before. However, it always ends up the best timing for us (plus both our b-days are Sept).
 


Yes, September every year for years now. Only one year had hurricane issue, but only closed parks early for one day. Funny, only other time I had a hurricane bother my vacation was first week of December, as was staying on gulf island.
 
We've been lucky so far with the hurricanes but in 2018 we did fly over one that shifted last minute.
 
Following.
We managed to sneak our September 2017 trip in between Jose, Maria and Lee, but we were lucky. I like the Tropical Tidbits website. Levi does a great job explaining what's going on and he updates frequently with video when things get busy.
 


Following.
We managed to sneak our September 2017 trip in between Jose, Maria and Lee, but we were lucky. I like the Tropical Tidbits website. Levi does a great job explaining what's going on and he updates frequently with video when things get busy.

I think I remember following that site when the one in 2018 was around. Thanks for the reminder!
 
I will be there for my son's 19th Birthday as well September 23-26 (his birthday is the 24th). Right now we are staying at Aventura, but I will be keeping an eye out for a Premier hotel opening! It will be all of our first time to HHN so probably going to splurge for a VIP tour for his birthday, but we'll see!
 
I will be there for my son's 19th Birthday as well September 23-26 (his birthday is the 24th). Right now we are staying at Aventura, but I will be keeping an eye out for a Premier hotel opening! It will be all of our first time to HHN so probably going to splurge for a VIP tour for his birthday, but we'll see!

oh super fun for your son! We actually most likely won’t do HHN (we never have). While I would go, DH hates jump scares with a passion and would likely not go into the houses so not really worth it! (Though as part of “planning for Sept 2022” I might see what he says about it. If he shows interested I might do it…the Disney creep seems to work just as well at Universal 🤦🏻‍♀️)
 
Ok Intros!

Me: 42, accountant, lover of Disney theme parks, universal Studios Florida and Harry Potter. Planner extraordinaire (if I do say so myself 😁)

DH: 49, writer/PA, lover of Harry Potter (solidly not a Muggle apparently), happy to go along with the plan but “no I don’t remember what we are supposed to be doing every single day at any single time in the parks”.

Our trips to Orlando started when we heard about the Wizarding World of HP. DH and I started dating right around when Order if the Phoenix (the book) came out so HP has always been something we enjoyed together. We decided to go in September 2010 because both of our birthdays are that month. That trip was planned before I knew about any kind of message boards and about 4 months out so we just took what had reservations available as far as restaurants go. That trip we stayed at All Star Music, used Disney transportation, did day trips to Universal and had no idea how much we needed to pace ourselves 😂.

Our next trip was April 2015. Diagon Alley had opened so we, of course, needed to check it out. I think it was about a couple of weeks before the trip that I discovered this site and realized we definitely needed to stay at one of the US premium resorts. I changed our reservation around and we had our first HRH stay. It was awesome and a fantastic idea (if I do say so myself 😁). At Disney we stayed at the Caribbean Beach resort since we had gone to Jamaica for our honeymoon lol. We rented a car for this trip as the buses drove us a bit nuts the first time.


In October 2016 we decided to try out DLR and Universal Hollywood. We stayed on property at DLR which was a great experience but I wouldn’t pay for it again. At the same time, our house was up for sale and had been for a few months. We ended up signing the papers for the sale while in line for a ride 😂. I was underwhelmed by USH - the HP stuff and Simpson’s stuff was awesome but it just doesn’t compare to USO for me. Which is too bad as California is much easier for us to get to! We also did MNSSHP and it was so much fun!


Next up was December 2017. That was not a warm trip lol. We started at HRH and then headed to Pop, but we did not get a renovated room so that was a bit of a bummer. I’m glad we’ve seen the parks with the Christmas stuff up but I likely wouldn’t choose to go at that time of year again. We did get to do the Christmas party and were able to attend the party they had at DHS for Last Jedi! We also spent way too much money on souvenirs. 😂


then I decided we should go for my 40th birthday 😁 so Sept 2018 was born. In the interest of saving some money, we did a US only stay…well that’s what it was supposed to be until I decided we should stay one night at the Contemporary (got upgraded to theme park view in the tower!) and go to MNSSHP. It was fun to compare the two and we really enjoyed it. Being within walking distance was fantastic for the end of the night. Spent the rest of the week at HRH where we discovered the joys of morning/evening park time with afternoons by the pool…with poolside drinks 😁. After one such afternoon, I may or may not have fallen off the bed and banged my head. Thinking nothing of it, we headed to the park and rode Forbidden Journey. I had to immediately sit down and could barely make it back to the hotel because I was so dizzy (had to let DH guide me basically). Was a bit scary, and possibly should have gotten it checked out but when I woke up in the morning, I was fine 🤷‍♀️


and finally, May 2019 - the “well we have AP for US so it would be silly not to plan a trip to use them again before they expire” trip. I can always justify it lol. This time we decided in a few nights at Port Orleans French Quarter which we loved. Skipped Epcot (not our fave anyway) to keep costs down a bit and moved on to, you may have guessed, HRH. Another rotation of room/park/pool for a few days. A great trip, as always, but nothing in particular stands out ha.

So there you have it. A (not so) brief history of our park experiences. We were days away from leaving for DLR as an add-on to seeing my parents in Palm Springs but alas we were due to leave March 14, 2020 so…

(I did have pics, can’t figure it out right now and have to run but don’t want to lose what I wrote! I’ll come back and see if I can insert them).
 
Last edited:
Ok Intros!

Me: 42, accountant, lover of Disney theme parks, universal Studios Florida and Harry Potter. Planner extraordinaire (if I do say so myself 😁)

DH: 49, writer/PA, lover of Harry Potter (solidly not a Muggle apparently), happy to go along with the plan but “no I don’t remember what we are supposed to be doing every single day at any single time in the parks”.

Our trips to Orlando started when we heard about the Wizarding World of HP. DH and I started dating right around when Order if the Phoenix (the book) came out so HP has always been something we enjoyed together. We decided to go in September 2010 because both of our birthdays are that month. That trip was planned before I knew about any kind of message boards and about 4 months out so we just took what had reservations available as far as restaurants go. That trip we stayed at All Star Music, used Disney transportation, did day trips to Universal and had no idea how much we needed to pace ourselves 😂.

Our next trip was April 2015. Diagon Alley had opened so we, of course, needed to check it out. I think it was about a couple of weeks before the trip that I discovered this site and realized we definitely needed to stay at one of the US premium resorts. I changed our reservation around and we had our first HRH stay. It was awesome and a fantastic idea (if I do say so myself 😁). At Disney we stayed at the Caribbean Beach resort since we had gone to Jamaica for our honeymoon lol. We rented a car for this trip as the buses drove us a bit nuts the first time.


In October 2016 we decided to try out DLR and Universal Hollywood. We stayed on property at DLR which was a great experience but I wouldn’t pay for it again. At the same time, our house was up for sale and had been for a few months. We ended up signing the papers for the sale while in line for a ride 😂. I was underwhelmed by USH - the HP stuff and Simpson’s stuff was awesome but it just doesn’t compare to USO for me. Which is too bad as California is much easier for us to get to! We also did MNSSHP and it was so much fun!


Next up was December 2017. That was not a warm trip lol. We started at HRH and then headed to Pop, but we did not get a renovated room so that was a bit of a bummer. I’m glad we’ve seen the parks with the Christmas stuff up but I likely wouldn’t choose to go at that time of year again. We did get to do the Christmas party and were able to attend the party they had at DHS for Last Jedi! We also spent way too much money on souvenirs. 😂


then I decided we should go for my 40th birthday 😁 so Sept 2018 was born. In the interest of saving some money, we did a US only stay…well that’s what it was supposed to be until I decided we should stay one night at the Contemporary (got upgraded to theme park view in the tower!) and go to MNSSHP. It was fun to compare the two and we really enjoyed it. Being within walking distance was fantastic for the end of the night. Spent the rest of the week at HRH where we discovered the joys of morning/evening park time with afternoons by the pool…with poolside drinks 😁. After one such afternoon, I may or may not have fallen off the bed and banged my head. Thinking nothing of it, we headed to the park and rode Forbidden Journey. I had to immediately sit down and could barely make it back to the hotel because I was so dizzy (had to let DH guide me basically). Was a bit scary, and possibly should have gotten it checked out but when I woke up in the morning, I was fine 🤷‍♀️


and finally, May 2019 - the “well we have AP for US so it would be silly not to plan a trip to use them again before they expire” trip. I can always justify it lol. This time we decided in a few nights at Port Orleans French Quarter which we loved. Skipped Epcot (not our fave anyway) to keep costs down a bit and moved on to, you may have guessed, HRH. Another rotation of room/park/pool for a few days. A great trip, as always, but nothing in particular stands out ha.

So there you have it. A (not so) brief history of our park experiences. We were days away from leaving for DLR as an add-on to seeing my parents in Palm Springs but alas we were due to leave March 14, 2020 so…

(I did have pics, can’t figure it out right now and have to run but don’t want to lose what I wrote! I’ll come back and see if I can insert them).

I love reading about your previous trips and how you enjoyed them……Potter is quite addictive.

And loved how you signed for the sale of your home while in a ride line……that’s unique……but I’m looking forward to reading about your trip……
 
Thanks @schumigirl ! I’ve always been a bit terrible at positing but I’ve read many of your trip reports. In fact (spoiler alert 😁) it looks like we’ll be able to try out Strong Water on this trip, which is definitely influenced by how much you both have enjoyed it!
 
Thanks @schumigirl ! I’ve always been a bit terrible at positing but I’ve read many of your trip reports. In fact (spoiler alert 😁) it looks like we’ll be able to try out Strong Water on this trip, which is definitely influenced by how much you both have enjoyed it!

Oh I`m happy that you enjoyed reading them!

And you will love Strong Water Bar.....absolutely the BEST bar in the whole of UOR.....food, drinks and service, can`t be beaten ::yes::
 
Let's talk about plans so far!

At first (hahahahaha I literally have changed every one of our trips in some fashion or another), our flights were booked via Westjet for the 11:15pm flight out of YVR to YYZ. We then have about 3 hours to kill/get through customs before heading out to MCO. I'm crossing my fingers for the removal of the COVID testing requirement into the US but we'll see what happens. I'm just a bit nervous about timing it out right since we technically leave for the US a day after we leave Vancouver. We'll Uber over to RPR from there! I might look at ordering some groceries/snack foods/booze as well just to help keep the costs down a bit - we love our poolside bevvies but they can get pretty pricey!!

DH's favourite hotel is HRH. Unfortunately, there is just no availability for our time frame. Well, I think there was a rock royalty room or something like that but wayyyy out of our budget! Luckily, despite it being HHN time for the majority of the time we are there, I did manage to snag a room at Royal Pacific. I'm excited to try a new premium hotel since we've only stayed at HRH. We did do one night at Cabana Bay on one trip (I think our last one) because the price of HRH for that Saturday night was atrocious, I really wanted to try out the lazy river and we were checking out super dooper early in the morning (like 4am or something). The hotel was fun, bus service was great but the walls are so thin we could hear someone moaning next door all night so barely slept. I don't know if they were just sleep talking or what. Also DH had started to get an abscess in one of his remaining wisdom teeth so he was not remotely comfortable. Poor guy.

Anyway, RPR - like I said, I'm happy to try something else out and see if it changes our opinion on where to stay in the future! The pool looks awesome (bigger than HRH too I think?) so that will be a highlight for sure. I will be contacting them as it sounds like Tower 3 is the best one to be in. I also realized I no longer need early check in because...

...my birthday is actually Sept 21. So originally we were leaving on my birthday (barely ha) and arriving the next day. As I keep checking for an HRH cancellation and/or APH rates, I managed to pick up an APH rate for 1 night in the Sapphire Suite at Sapphire Falls for Sept 21! To say I was stoked about this is putting it mildly lol. We rarely stay in anything other than a standard or king bed room so this will be super fun for 1 night IMO. So I went ahead and cancelled our flight (thank you WJ for having this option) and bought new ones to leave the day earlier. And I still have a free cancel/change should I need it. I also upgraded from the basic fare to the econo fare for like $50 total which allows me to collect points on the flights so yay for that! I also went with a 10:30pm departure instead of 11:15pm just for a bit of extra time in Toronto (I always get nervous as the customs lines can drag so badly even pre-COVID so this is purely an anxiety relieving thing for me).

So as of now, that's our flight and hotel plans!
 
Oohhhh so DH and I are sitting outside on a beautiful evening and I’m randomly searching universal site for APH rates and/or something at HRH to open up and lo and behold…I oddly managed to cobble together 2 reservations at HRH that are both Deluxe King rooms. One for Wed - Fri and one for Fri - Mon. So I’ve tentatively booked it for now.

On the plus side - it is DH’s favourite hotel so I’d love to stay there for his birthday. On the negative side - it’s quite a bit more than we were paying with RPR…decisions, decisions…
 
Oohhhh so DH and I are sitting outside on a beautiful evening and I’m randomly searching universal site for APH rates and/or something at HRH to open up and lo and behold…I oddly managed to cobble together 2 reservations at HRH that are both Deluxe King rooms. One for Wed - Fri and one for Fri - Mon. So I’ve tentatively booked it for now.

On the plus side - it is DH’s favourite hotel so I’d love to stay there for his birthday. On the negative side - it’s quite a bit more than we were paying with RPR…decisions, decisions…
Did you find a good rate.? Guess I will look for AP rate too
Congrats!
 
Did you find a good rate.? Guess I will look for AP rate too
Congrats!

not a great rate - just their usual one, which is part of what I have to decide as it’s a good $100+ a night more expensive that what I got with RPR. I actually wouldn’t entertain it if it wasn’t DH’s fave and this trip is all about him.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!











facebook twitter
Top