lvcourtneyy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2012
Welcome! Thanks for being here!
Hi it's me- you want some pretzel?- a sisters' Dec 2019 USO/WDW trip! new 1/24!
- Thread starter lvcourtneyy
- Start date
Welcome! Thanks for being here!
lvcourtneyy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2012
lvcourtneyy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2012
lvcourtneyy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2012
I'm here and can't wait to read all about it!!!
Welcome! Thanks for reading!
lvcourtneyy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2012
lvcourtneyy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2012
Welcome! Thanks for reading! Sister trips are a lot of fun!
lvcourtneyy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2012
Thanks for joining! That's what kept happening to me too so I was so excited to finally make it to one!
lvcourtneyy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2012
Welcome! Thanks for reading! The same thing kept happening to me so when they announced the December dates, I knew we needed to make this trip happen! There's one in May the week after we're going and I thought about trying to change our dates to go but it was much more expensive for flights and hotels
lvcourtneyy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2012
How many TR's do you have going nowDoesn't matter I'll keep joining in! I think a sisters trip sounds fun!
Too many for me to keep up with lol
but I actually finally finished one 
! Thanks for reading them all lol!
lvcourtneyy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2012
lvcourtneyy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2012
lvcourtneyy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2012
lvcourtneyy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2012
Welcome! Thanks for being here!
lvcourtneyy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2012
pkondz
Brace yourself for immediate disintegration
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2007
lvcourtneyy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2012
You Brought that Through Security?
This trip started essentially the same way as every other trip I've taken.
With frenzied last minute errands and packing before a flight at the crack of dawn.
As it always does, everything got done somehow and we got a few minutes of sleep before our 2:30 AM wake up call.
Mike was smart enough to load the car up the night before so we could minimize what we had to do this early morning. I also remembered my trick from June of stopping at the Tim Hortons drive thru to get breakfast sandwiches to bring to the airport since nothing is open this early.
Conveniently, very few others are crazy enough to be on the road at that time of morning so we made it to the airport quickly and easily.
We packed carry ons only so we were able to go straight to security. The line was fairly short and also went without incident.
Soon enough, we made it to our gate and made ourselves comfortable to wait to board.
Don't we look awake
We were happy to have our breakfast sandwiches because, as predicted, none of the stores were open yet. As we were eating them, a couple sat down near us and the woman kept gesturing to the man at our food. A few minutes later, he came over to ask where we got them and was immensely confused when I said we brought them with us.
He said "You're allowed to bring that through security?" I refrained from saying obviously since we did since he was actually very nice and just said yes. He walked back to his spouse shaking his head in confusion and Kimberly and I cracked up.
Eventually a store opened and after the initial rush died down, we got some Diet Cokes to attempt to wake up and took restroom breaks before boarding.
Boarding also went smoothly and we took off on time at 5 am.
We spent the flight listening to music and sleeping.
We landed just before 7:30 and saw our first of many Christmas trees for the trip.
When we changed our trip around to include more Universal time, I booked a rental car and got a good rate through Advantage. I was a little anxious because I'd seen mixed reviews online about the company.
It was pretty dead at all of the rental car counters that morning but there was one man ahead of us at the Advantage counter and only one employee working so we had to wait a little bit. I'd read awful reviews of the employees being rude and pushy with upsells and people getting charged extra at the counter and i'm happy to say we experienced none of that. The lady helping us was very nice and she did try to get us to upgrade and include all kinds of extra things but I simply said no thank you to all of them and had no issues. The contract reflected the rate i booked online and I was charged appropriately and refunded the security deposit quickly upon returning the car.
Our car for the trip was some kinda little Hyundai.
It was very basic but fine. Getting out of the parking garage was a little confusing but there were a lot of signs to follow and eventually we managed lol.
My co-pilot sister was assigned (by default) as the GPS monitor, which she combined with resident photographer.
It was 8:15 by the time we were leaving the parking garage and we were more excited than most probably to see this sign.
Our hotel for the first night was the Rosen Inn nearest Universal. If you're also following my Fall trip report, you've just read my post about how we booked this for a great rate and were surprisingly pleased by it so I decided to book it again for this trip.
We pulled into the parking lot at 8:35.
We went inside to check-in and given the early hour, we weren't surprised to find our room wasn't ready yet. The employee offered the option to pay to have a room ready sooner but we were excited to start doing things so we declined the offer. She did the whole check-in process and said later when we came back, we'd just have to get room keys. The only downside was there was no text or phone call to indicate when your room was ready, you just had to go back to the front desk and check.
This cute setup was in the lobby.
She did give us a coupon for BOGO breakfast at the hotel but we had spied a Waffle House across the street and decided to go there.
We don't have Waffle House near us so it's usually a road trip staple for us so we were very excited to find one so close.
In case you were curious, here's the breakfast menu.
I got the bacon, egg and cheese hashbrown bowl which is what I always get and add lots of hot sauce to lol. I think Kim got the same.
Our second breakfast of the morning was delicious and hit the spot. And wouldn't you know, there was another Christmas tree to be found.
This one was of the Charlie brown variety.
We weren't sure what to do after breakfast but I remembered that one set of outlets was very close so we went there.
I've been going to the outlets for years and there was never a crazy line to get in at opening. Apparently they've become very busy recently and on our Fall trip, Mike and I had to wait in a huge line to wait for people to leave to get in. I warned Kim this might be the case but luckily we didn't find it crowded at all!
There was a ton of Halloween and Food and Wine merchandise and I had to keep reminding myself that luggage space was very limited lol.
I ended up getting a set of beauty and the beast dish towels, a Food and Wine shirt, a Halloween party shirt, a Br' er rabbit wishable, a couple pins and what I was most excited for- the food and wine Minnie ears for $5.99! I spent under $30 and was very excited!
By the time we were done in the store, it was drizzling and we debated what to do next. It seemed unlikely we'd be able to get a room yet so we decided to go to Universal!
This trip started essentially the same way as every other trip I've taken.
With frenzied last minute errands and packing before a flight at the crack of dawn.
As it always does, everything got done somehow and we got a few minutes of sleep before our 2:30 AM wake up call.
Mike was smart enough to load the car up the night before so we could minimize what we had to do this early morning. I also remembered my trick from June of stopping at the Tim Hortons drive thru to get breakfast sandwiches to bring to the airport since nothing is open this early.
Conveniently, very few others are crazy enough to be on the road at that time of morning so we made it to the airport quickly and easily.
We packed carry ons only so we were able to go straight to security. The line was fairly short and also went without incident.
Soon enough, we made it to our gate and made ourselves comfortable to wait to board.
Don't we look awake
We were happy to have our breakfast sandwiches because, as predicted, none of the stores were open yet. As we were eating them, a couple sat down near us and the woman kept gesturing to the man at our food. A few minutes later, he came over to ask where we got them and was immensely confused when I said we brought them with us.
He said "You're allowed to bring that through security?" I refrained from saying obviously since we did since he was actually very nice and just said yes. He walked back to his spouse shaking his head in confusion and Kimberly and I cracked up.
Eventually a store opened and after the initial rush died down, we got some Diet Cokes to attempt to wake up and took restroom breaks before boarding.
Boarding also went smoothly and we took off on time at 5 am.
We spent the flight listening to music and sleeping.
We landed just before 7:30 and saw our first of many Christmas trees for the trip.
When we changed our trip around to include more Universal time, I booked a rental car and got a good rate through Advantage. I was a little anxious because I'd seen mixed reviews online about the company.
It was pretty dead at all of the rental car counters that morning but there was one man ahead of us at the Advantage counter and only one employee working so we had to wait a little bit. I'd read awful reviews of the employees being rude and pushy with upsells and people getting charged extra at the counter and i'm happy to say we experienced none of that. The lady helping us was very nice and she did try to get us to upgrade and include all kinds of extra things but I simply said no thank you to all of them and had no issues. The contract reflected the rate i booked online and I was charged appropriately and refunded the security deposit quickly upon returning the car.
Our car for the trip was some kinda little Hyundai.
It was very basic but fine. Getting out of the parking garage was a little confusing but there were a lot of signs to follow and eventually we managed lol.
My co-pilot sister was assigned (by default) as the GPS monitor, which she combined with resident photographer.
It was 8:15 by the time we were leaving the parking garage and we were more excited than most probably to see this sign.
Our hotel for the first night was the Rosen Inn nearest Universal. If you're also following my Fall trip report, you've just read my post about how we booked this for a great rate and were surprisingly pleased by it so I decided to book it again for this trip.
We pulled into the parking lot at 8:35.
We went inside to check-in and given the early hour, we weren't surprised to find our room wasn't ready yet. The employee offered the option to pay to have a room ready sooner but we were excited to start doing things so we declined the offer. She did the whole check-in process and said later when we came back, we'd just have to get room keys. The only downside was there was no text or phone call to indicate when your room was ready, you just had to go back to the front desk and check.
This cute setup was in the lobby.
She did give us a coupon for BOGO breakfast at the hotel but we had spied a Waffle House across the street and decided to go there.
We don't have Waffle House near us so it's usually a road trip staple for us so we were very excited to find one so close.
In case you were curious, here's the breakfast menu.
I got the bacon, egg and cheese hashbrown bowl which is what I always get and add lots of hot sauce to lol. I think Kim got the same.
Our second breakfast of the morning was delicious and hit the spot. And wouldn't you know, there was another Christmas tree to be found.
This one was of the Charlie brown variety.
We weren't sure what to do after breakfast but I remembered that one set of outlets was very close so we went there.
I've been going to the outlets for years and there was never a crazy line to get in at opening. Apparently they've become very busy recently and on our Fall trip, Mike and I had to wait in a huge line to wait for people to leave to get in. I warned Kim this might be the case but luckily we didn't find it crowded at all!
There was a ton of Halloween and Food and Wine merchandise and I had to keep reminding myself that luggage space was very limited lol.
I ended up getting a set of beauty and the beast dish towels, a Food and Wine shirt, a Halloween party shirt, a Br' er rabbit wishable, a couple pins and what I was most excited for- the food and wine Minnie ears for $5.99! I spent under $30 and was very excited!
By the time we were done in the store, it was drizzling and we debated what to do next. It seemed unlikely we'd be able to get a room yet so we decided to go to Universal!
amazingact21
Upendi
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2010
Glad your travel day was uneventful! How funny that someone came over and asked you about your Tim Horton's breakfast. I feel like I'd never survive morning flights if I didn't bring food with me through security. One time when I was flying alone with the kids, I legitimately brought a picnic lunch with us. Sandwiches, chips, fruits, and veggies. I take my flight snackage seriously.
Did you get the same rate at Rosen Inn? How far was this one from Disney property? I'm starting to seriously consider staying here for a night in June with Alex.
Can't beat a Waffle House breakfast. Although, I'll admit, in my college and dating years I usually frequented it late at night.
Did you get the same rate at Rosen Inn? How far was this one from Disney property? I'm starting to seriously consider staying here for a night in June with Alex.
Can't beat a Waffle House breakfast. Although, I'll admit, in my college and dating years I usually frequented it late at night.
LeiaIsAPrincess2
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 10, 2018
Joining in to read about the sisters trip! Glad your travel day went smoothly!
ljcrochet
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 4, 2006
Very smart to bring your own food with you to the airport. My last flight from EWR, flight was so delayed and there was really nothing in our terminal. Lucky American Airlines gave us lots of free snacks
I can't wait to hear about your universal experiences.
I can't wait to hear about your universal experiences.
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