Hello all!
The time has come to do a recap of my recent non-running, trip to Universal and Walt Disney World.
We were there from 10/19-10/27 and it was awesome! Food and Wine Festival, Hoop Dee Doo, Harry Potter, Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, and generally good crowd levels and weather. We also got to use Fastpass+ in a real way since they rolled out the ability to connect it with Wookie’s silver pass, score!
So on with the show!
This is going to be part trip report but mostly just highlights of the notable things we did on the trip.
Leaving Ohio
So the plan was to run the Columbus Marathon, head home and have a nice lunch with the family, and then head to the airport for our 5 o’clock flight on American Airlines. This would get us into Orlando around 11pm and then we would head to Cabana Bay, rest up, and hit Universal the next day.
That is what was suppose to happen, but this is what actually happened.
Everything went according to the plan, until we boarded our flight and waited… and waited… and waited… finally it was announced there was an issue with a hydraulic something and we were going to deplane. The part they needed was suppose to arrive on the next flight which would arrive at 7:30, but this delay meant we were going to miss our connection in Dallas. I totally understand these things happen, so Wookie and I talked about it and figured out what to do next.
7:30 came around and the part was not on that plane, further delay. From then on they just kept nudging out the time of departure and we had already decided to get to Dallas and take the first flight out at 6am the next morning which would get us into Orlando by 9:30am the next day. At this point we were still on the fence about doing Universal the next day or just waiting a day and having a hotel day.
Finally, after lots of confused communication from American we boarded the flight at around 10:30pm. We got to Dallas at 1 local time and got to the hotel they had set up for us because of the delay around 2 (which was also a 20 min drive and we passed MANY hotels on the way).
Since we had planned to grab the earliest flight because when we booked our morning flight we weren’t getting in as late, this meant a whopping 1.5 hours of sleep since we had to grab the hotel shuttle. Also, in Columbus they had told us that we’d get our bags in Dallas for the night, nope, they held them which was frustrating because that meant I had no overnight stuff with me. Again, communication fail. Also, this delay also meant that we pushed back our entire trip by a day. Since we got no sleep we decided to hold Universal for a day which meant adjusting every rental car, hotel, and dining reservation we had made.
So after all of this we arrived in Orlando, ready to finally start our vacation, and guess what? My bag was not on our plane. It didn’t even get to Dallas, it went to Chicago somehow and would arrive an hour after. Since at this point we were tired and in no real rush, we decided to just wait the hour at the airport instead of waiting for a luggage delivery. Also, how did my bag fly with me? Isn’t that a security thing that you are suppose to be on the plane your bag is on?
Augh, it was super frustrating and because of the lack of communication and how slowly they managed the whole process, I will be thinking twice, triple, quadruple… before flying American Airlines again.
Since we were so pooped by this point, we got the rental car, picked up the park tickets and some groceries and then went to Cabana Bay to take a nap and then swim and chill. This is exactly what we needed after the silliness that had ensued.
Cabana Bay
After everything that had happened I just wanted to take a nap. After running a marathon, a good nights sleep is always in order and instead I had spent the 24 hours after the race traveling. Not ideal.
Did I like Cabana Bay? HECK YES! This resort is so awesome. The theming, the team members, the pool, and the rooms were all amazing. I highly recommend staying here!
 |
| Our view! |
So we settled in, grabbed a beer and chilled for a bit and then snuggled in for a nap. We set some alarms (we thought) so we didn’t sleep the day away and finally got the rest we needed.
After a longer than expected (but much needed) nap, we awoke around 6 and decided to check out the pool. We had seen the lazy river from our room and wanted to check it out. The pool was awesome, but it was starting to cool off so it was a bit chillier than I would’v liked. After swimming for a bit, we hopped out and decided to head tot he food court for dinner, I got a chicken sandwich and Wookie got some pasta. Both were good and the I thought the food court area was so cute.
 |
| Food court had different stations and was very open. The only disappointment was that the soft serve machines were empty. |
We then wandered over to the other half of the resort and checked out their pool area (didn’t get in) and grabbed an adult beverage at the pool bar. After chilling for a bit we wandered back to our side and snuggled into bed, excited for Universal (aka Harry Potter) fun the next day!
I’m really glad we decided to take a hotel day and got to check out this awesome resort. Highly recommend this place if you want to check out Universal!
That’s all for Part 1! Continue along to Part 2: WDW/Universal Oct ’14 – Part 2: You’re a Wizard!
You can check out all my shared vacation pictures here if you’d like a sneak peak: Universal/WDW Trip October 2014