Hotel – Sheraton Vistana Resort on RT 535. We have stayed here 7 times now and it is always nice. Just a few minor annoyances like there are two printers in a store that you can use to print things like boarding passes. But only one is working (It has been like this for the past two years… Printer 1 off line even though it has power on. Printer two Jammed again). Ugggg..
This is a great place to stay – Large resort, 7 pools, many hot tubs, Great location to everything, Large 2-bedroom suits, 2 -full bathrooms, washer\dryer, kitchen, balcony, ponds, ducks, water fountains. About $160 per night.
Alamo rental car. Cars were more expensive this year. I like to get a Premium car and we had a Chevy Impala. There is an annoying feature on the Impala that turns off the car at stops. Called Auto stop, can’t turn it off either, so at every red light, toll booth, keycode entry into resort, the damn car shuts off… (Who the monkey came up with this auto stop crap). To power all the things running during Auto stop, GM put a huge battery in the front and a small back up battery in the trunk. I bet it costs $$$$ to replace said huge battery….
Parks – 4 days at Universal, 1 day at Animal Kingdom.
Universal is our favorite and they had a special offer, buy 3 days get 2 days free. So, we had 5 days’ worth of tickets but used only 4 days.
We wanted to see the new Pandora stuff plus AK is our favorite Disney park. Park was busy as are all Disney parks in Florida. The Avatar Flight of Passage was great. It was a 90-minute wait but we believe it was worth it. Fun and exciting ride, queue was decent and had some cool magnets dancing effects…
Tried the Voodoo doughnuts place, if you want to get a doughnut do it before for you enter the parks, this place gets a long line when leaving for the day but we found minimal lines in the mornings.
Toothsome Chocolate Emporium – we tried two different shakes, both were decent but it cost us $27.00… Yikes…. They do let you keep the containers the shakes are in but it is simply a plastic mason jar with an emblem on it…. If this was glass we would have kept it..
NBC sports café – We had a later flight at 6:20 PM on Saturday so we went to Universal for ½ day on the Studios side and hit this café before leaving. Love the views of the parks for the 2nd floor, food was decent with large portions of what you ordered. Cost us $55.00 for 3 of us before tip. We had a burger, turkey club and French dip.
Also tried the chocolate chilli ice cream in Diagon alley at Florean Fortescue's – This was different, cold creamy smooth chocolatey with a slight burn. I liked it…
As I said just a few highlights - Oh, it also rained everyday but we bought tourist ponchos...
Nice to hear form you Mako.
I did not see any Run DMC hats -hahahaah..
But yes we got rained on every day... It did not dampen our spirits, we still had a great vacation...
Then only thing that was a bit disappointing was Hulk - They shut that down during those Florida downpours...
We had fun, ate Turkey legs, had a few beers, got soaked....
I have been communicating with the Orlando Informer via Twitter since he has private events at Universal. he has one June 2nd. I would love to attend a private event.. I was asking him if he is going to have another event in October but he said no plans as of now for that month... Last year he had two events.... One in May and One in October....
The theme parks in Orlando can be frustrating re. running in the rain, or any signs of inclement weather. CP was happily running rides when it did actually rain (not very often) whereas Orlando parks will usually shut down the rides. I've been to SWO and the sun is shining, but the rides are down due to lightening in the 5 mile radius. Something different to rain I know, but they are ultra careful here.
Although having been on rides when it is raining, (pouring in some instances) especially in the front seat, it is not one of the most pleasurable experiences I've ever had when riding coasters.
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Coincidentally on Saturday May 12th the company I work for had their summer outing at Universal. You may have seen a few hundred people walking around in white polos and a red DMC logo ??
I was a little bummed to miss it as it was a 2 Park 1 day ticket, and I’ve never done the train between the 2 Harry Potter lands.
Everybody was disappointed due to the continual rain from around midday.
We’ve had an unbelievable amount of rain for May, but it was a dry winter and Mother Nature always has a knack of catching up.