We'll have joy, we'll have fun, we'll have Christmas in the sun...TR Complete!

[Mysteria]

Loved your trip report! It was nice to see places outside of Dinsey being so managable that week. I so badly want to see ICE. Just hard for me and dh to get time off at that time of year. I will do it though. Your experience and pics have made me more determined. You are my kinda people putting your 'gifts to each other' money all together for a trip instead.

I miss the Buffalo airport. It's so small and calm! I grew up in Toronto and we used Buffalo to fly south too.

I'll be back close to your neck of the woods in a couple of weeks (Toronto). It's cold here but colder there. Can you turn up the heat please.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Really enjoyed your trip report. It was neat to read about things in Orlando other than Disney. I went to a convention once at The Gaylord Palms but we had spent several days at The Swan first and were missing Disney so I don't think we gave it a chance. We knew it was a great hotel but we missed Disney. I think I would look at it differently now that I have been to Disney more. So nice to see that your son enjoys spending time with you- I hope someday my kids are like that too!

Thank you!! Glad you enjoyed it .

We checked out Gaylord Palms for our upcoming August vacation, but believe it or not, it was already fully booked for the final week of the month. Booked solid that whole week, and its only January! Ah well, next trip maybe!

Loved your trip report! It was nice to see places outside of Dinsey being so managable that week. I so badly want to see ICE. Just hard for me and dh to get time off at that time of year. I will do it though. Your experience and pics have made me more determined. You are my kinda people putting your 'gifts to each other' money all together for a trip instead.

I miss the Buffalo airport. It's so small and calm! I grew up in Toronto and we used Buffalo to fly south too.

I'll be back close to your neck of the woods in a couple of weeks (Toronto). It's cold here but colder there. Can you turn up the heat please.

Thanks for the kind comments!

ICE! actually starts quite early......I want to say mid-November......so you can still catch it well before the holidays if time off at Christmas is a pain to arrange . They have great pricing earlier on as well. We paid "peak" rates for our Christmas week tickets, but I know the non-peak dates were several dollars cheaper per person. Non peak dates have also been featured on Groupon from time to time at a huge discount.

I wish I could tell you that things were warming up here in the Great White North, but alas.....we are in a bit of a deep freeze these days. Its a "balmy" -18 celcuis (-0.4 farenheit) outside this morning, and I say balmy because a day or two ago we awoke to -25. I know its not politically correct for a good Canadian girl to say, but ..........

I HATE WINTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope Mother Nature gives us a nice warm spell just in time for your Toronto visit!

 

[bankr63]

I wish I could tell you that things were warming up here in the Great White North, but alas.....we are in a bit of a deep freeze these days. Its a "balmy" -18 celcuis (-0.4 farenheit) outside this morning, and I say balmy because a day or two ago we awoke to -25. I know its not politically correct for a good Canadian girl to say, but ..........

I HATE WINTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope Mother Nature gives us a nice warm spell just in time for your Toronto visit!

It's the wind chills that are nasty. -39C here yesterday, which is -38F. exposed skin freezes in under 10 minutes. That's dang cold!

 

[greenclan67]

It has been awful. We just got our water pipes unthawed for the 2nd time this week. School was cancelled one day this week because busses wouldnt start. Brutal 34 days to go til i see and feel the sun.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

It's the wind chills that are nasty. -39C here yesterday, which is -38F. exposed skin freezes in under 10 minutes. That's dang cold!

It has been awful. We just got our water pipes unthawed for the 2nd time this week. School was cancelled one day this week because busses wouldnt start. Brutal 34 days to go til i see and feel the sun.

So here I sit, reading these replies, and wondering why we booked a SUMMER trip for our next getaway?!?!

Dang school schedules!!!

 

[coastgirl]

Still have about 4 pages to read to catch up, but wanted to comment to 2Pirates2Princesses...

Thank you also for sharing your experience at T Rex. We have a reservation there because we didn't get to go there on our last trip and the theming looks amazing, however I am very concerned about the noise issue. I have read several reviews where people discussed this, and it may be an issue for us because I have a child with sensory and noise sensitivities. I am not sure what the best thing to do would be. It seems so popular and one of those must do type of meals to experience at least once. Decisions, decisions

My son has sensory issues also, has PDD-NOS if you know that bit of alphabet soup--but was diagnosed with sensory processing disorder long before the ASD dx. Anyway, he hated T Rex. We went there a couple of years ago when he was 10. He has always handled the parks really well and enjoyed them fully, but he hated T Rex, despite all the boy-coolness to it. I'd never make him do that again. We were in a different area, neither the ice cave nor the volcano, can't remember the theming--pretty calm relatively I think, but still, noisy, noisy, crowded, intentionally chaotic. Personally I think he gets the sensory issues from his mama, and I found it uncomfortable too. HTH. And, of course, YMMV. But I wish someone had told me before we went...

Gina I can imagine how jarring the lighting was for you; you're a very good sport.

 

[coastgirl]

Back again--finally finished! I'm counting on a snow day tomorrow, if the school board is mean and I have to get the kids up for school I'll be blaming you for my bleary eyes!

Great TR, thanks so much for putting all that time in. We just booked ourselves for August yesterday, and you have me even more excited! You reminded me of so many things we can look forward to, and gave me some new ideas. (Dining with Shamu! Cool!) I asked my son today where he was most looking forward to eating, and he said Friendly's. (We have a vacation rule: every one must have ice cream at least once a day every day during family vacations. Friendly's helps us meet our commitment!) And we too love visiting Stitch for breakfast, even when we're not buying Disney tickets. Thanks for all the great pics, too, it really makes the story come alive.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Great TR, thanks so much for putting all that time in. We just booked ourselves for August yesterday, and you have me even more excited! You reminded me of so many things we can look forward to, and gave me some new ideas. (Dining with Shamu! Cool!) I asked my son today where he was most looking forward to eating, and he said Friendly's. (We have a vacation rule: every one must have ice cream at least once a day every day during family vacations. Friendly's helps us meet our commitment!) And we too love visiting Stitch for breakfast, even when we're not buying Disney tickets. Thanks for all the great pics, too, it really makes the story come alive.

Thank you so much . Glad you enjoyed the report!!

Have an AWESOME trip in August!!! Hey, maybe we'll see you down there......at Friendly''s . I must say I like your ice cream rule!!!

Hope you got your snow day this morning!! I think we got just enough of a dusting to make the drive to work a little slippery. C'mon, summer!

 

[dizzyr]

I just read your trip report from beginning to end! It sounded like you had a great time and you've given me lots of ideas. We are going on a cruise in Nov and are spending 6 days in Orlando before the cruise and not doing Disney. It never even occured to me we could do some character dining if we weren't going to Disney so that's awesome! Do you have a trip report from your trips with Discovery Cove?

I may have to check out the airboat ride and all the gators!

We are also staying at the Residence Inn so loved all the photos

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Do you have a trip report from your trips with Discovery Cove?

My two previous trip reports were rendered useless after some reorganization of my Photobucket account so while they *do* technically exist, they're not worth reading when you can't see the photos.

Hmmm .... maybe I will start a Discovery Cove photo thread over on the SeaWorld board! I bet there are many other Disers who could also share some of their pictures too.

 

[BeckyEsq]

I really enjoyed your report. You went to places I didn't even know existed in Orlando! Looks like so much fun!

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

I really enjoyed your report. You went to places I didn't even know existed in Orlando! Looks like so much fun!

Thanks! (and it was a ton of fun....we had a blast!)

 

[schriverl]

Just found your TR and read the whole thing! I may actually consider doing Gatorland now. I didn't realize there were things to do at Gaylord Palms. Had no clue about the Shrek meal. We drive by the hotel lots every vacation... We LOVE Sea World. Have never done the Waterpark though.
I have read a few trip reports from the Christmas Vacation here people have gotten sick at Disney this year. Blah!! I took DD9 and DS3 first week of December by myself and I got really sick the day we were supposed to go to MVMCP. I attempted to go to the party anyways. 10 minutes there and we headed to Guest Services to see if we could switch to a different party. They were amazing and so helpful. I got to sit down and rest while our Cast Member switched us to the next party!!
Thanks for all the detailed reviews of everything you did and where you got some great deals at!!

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Just found your TR and read the whole thing! I may actually consider doing Gatorland now. I didn't realize there were things to do at Gaylord Palms. Had no clue about the Shrek meal. We drive by the hotel lots every vacation... We LOVE Sea World. Have never done the Waterpark though.
I have read a few trip reports from the Christmas Vacation here people have gotten sick at Disney this year. Blah!! I took DD9 and DS3 first week of December by myself and I got really sick the day we were supposed to go to MVMCP. I attempted to go to the party anyways. 10 minutes there and we headed to Guest Services to see if we could switch to a different party. They were amazing and so helpful. I got to sit down and rest while our Cast Member switched us to the next party!!
Thanks for all the detailed reviews of everything you did and where you got some great deals at!!

Sorry to hear you got hit by the bug on your vacation too . I think its just one of those things you risk when travelling in the winter. LOL, I don't know which is worse.....fretting before we leave about getting hit by the flu on winter trips, or fretting about the possibility of hurricanes on our summer trips. Its a toss up!!! The good thing is, we find most places to be pretty decent about being flexible when the worst happens to come true. Yay for great customer service by SeaWorld, Disney and Universal

Gatorland is fun little park. Considering the low cost of admission, its definitely worth a half-day. Nothin' says "Florida" like a park totally dedicated to the Alligator!

 

[naomiatx86]

Oh my gosh Gina, I feel like we are long lost best friends because of these waterpark trips!

I have just wanted to do waterpark only trips so we are planning for next summer.

I'm intrigued by your signature- do you mind saying what parks you are going to hit on this next trip? I'm not sure if you have started a planning journal.

P.S. I have only read up until Aquatica so I apologize if you have already answered my question in a previous post. I'll get there soon! LOL

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Oh my gosh Gina, I feel like we are long lost best friends because of these waterpark trips!

I have just wanted to do waterpark only trips so we are planning for next summer.

I'm intrigued by your signature- do you mind saying what parks you are going to hit on this next trip? I'm not sure if you have started a planning journal.

P.S. I have only read up until Aquatica so I apologize if you have already answered my question in a previous post. I'll get there soon! LOL

Hi Naomi ,

On our next trip, we have plans to visit both Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach (the first trip to those waterparks for our family, so we are very excited ). We will purchase waterpark annual passes so we can (hopefully) make it to both parks at least twice during our 8 day stay.

We also plan to spend one day at Cocoa Beach (while DH and DS have both seen the ocean, I have not......so this is a BIG deal for me!).

Another stop on our itinerary is Showcase of Citrus for a tour of an orange grove on a monster truck. Sounds very cool and very "Florida".

There will be lots of outlet shopping, lots of mini golfing, at least one evening of bowling too. And TONS of pool time between it all at our resort . Hopefully Mother Nature will bless us with lots of sunshine.

I see you are planning a trip in 2014. It will be here before you know it!

 

[pigletto]

Sorry to hear you got hit by the bug on your vacation too . I think its just one of those things you risk when travelling in the winter. LOL, I don't know which is worse.....fretting before we leave about getting hit by the flu on winter trips, or fretting about the possibility of hurricanes on our summer trips. Its a toss up!!! The good thing is, we find most places to be pretty decent about being flexible when the worst happens to come true. Yay for great customer service by SeaWorld, Disney and Universal

Gatorland is fun little park. Considering the low cost of admission, its definitely worth a half-day. Nothin' says "Florida" like a park totally dedicated to the Alligator!

Isn't that the truth about travelling in August or the winter??!! As I sat waiting for our February trip fretting about snowstorms and flu I was reminded of sitting around waiting for my August trip fretting about hurricanes and flu

If it's not one thing it's another. Oh well.. we like to live on the edge don't we?

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Isn't that the truth about travelling in August or the winter??!! As I sat waiting for our February trip fretting about snowstorms and flu I was reminded of sitting around waiting for my August trip fretting about hurricanes and flu

If it's not one thing it's another. Oh well.. we like to live on the edge don't we?

It does beg the question.......for the lucky folks that vacation in May, October and November, what they heck do THEY fret about?!?

I am not sure I could ever commit to those time periods. Having nothing to obsess about prior to our departure would be simply too strange.

 

[pigletto]

It does beg the question.......for the lucky folks that vacation in May, October and November, what they heck do THEY fret about?!?

I am not sure I could ever commit to those time periods. Having nothing to obsess about prior to our departure would be simply too strange.

Right?!? It's part of the planning. "Obsess about weather" is one of the items on my to-do list

 

[naomiatx86]

Hi Naomi ,

On our next trip, we have plans to visit both Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach (the first trip to those waterparks for our family, so we are very excited ). We will purchase waterpark annual passes so we can (hopefully) make it to both parks at least twice during our 8 day stay.

We also plan to spend one day at Cocoa Beach (while DH and DS have both seen the ocean, I have not......so this is a BIG deal for me!).

Another stop on our itinerary is Showcase of Citrus for a tour of an orange grove on a monster truck. Sounds very cool and very "Florida".

There will be lots of outlet shopping, lots of mini golfing, at least one evening of bowling too. And TONS of pool time between it all at our resort . Hopefully Mother Nature will bless us with lots of sunshine.

I see you are planning a trip in 2014. It will be here before you know it!

Yes ma'am 2014 isn't so far away. I'm hoping we can do Wet N Wild, Aquatica, and both of the Disney Waterparks on our trip. My husband hasn't been to Florida at all and I have only been to the Disney Waterparks. And yep also hoping to do lots of mini golfing and going to those little carnival amusement parks on I-Drive.

Wow, I can't believe Cocoa Beach will be your first ocean view and yes I'm hoping that you guys will have nothing but great, awesome weather