Pre-Trip & Trip Report- Hard Blue Cocoa Fun Trip! Trip starts Pg3

[DISNEYLOVER70]

Hello to anyone reading this! This is my first trip report so I will apologize now if this bores anyone to death..... I tend to ramble when I talk so I will try to keep this as simple as possible!

I decided that there just wasn't enough Universal Studios trip reports so here goes:

The cast of this show:

Me- Renee




Ed- my husband


Alli- 16 yr old daughter (almost 17, I gotta say that)


Mitch-12 1/2 yr old son


Trip dates : Tuesday, April 13th - Sunday April 18th

How I came up with the title: Staying at HARD Rock Hotel, going to see BLUE Man Group, Going to COCOA Beach, and this trip better be FUN !!!

A little about each of us:

Me: I will just say it now and get it over with......I turn 40 in Florida April 15th to be exact...yeah yeah yeah I know, such a happy day. Everyone just LOVES income tax day... But I do love vacations and Disney World is my FAV... Which is why it is the only place we have every gone for a full week vacation. Kids won the war on this one and we will not be going to see the mouse this trip. I was upset at first, but now I am really looking forward to the laid back atmosphere of this trip and hoping I can put my commando boots away and just relax. Kids and husband have bets that I can not do this. Little faith...

Ed: Super super dad and husband. Workaholic. Self-employed home improvement contractor. Self-employed= no paid vacation time=Ed not real excited. He loves to spend time with his family but you know "the work doesn't get done by itself"... He will be fine when we get there. Loves rides, however anything spinning is not a good plan for him.... We will be giving him motion sickness meds every morning for sure

Alli: She is 16 1/2...what else can I say? She is just a walking party. She makes herself laugh so hard sometimes, she can't stop crying. When she is happy, EVERYONE is happy and when she isn't happy? No one within a 5 mile radius is either. She loves rides, and picture taking. You will see many pictures of her with a goofy face is what I anticipate. She loves her little brother and will admit that but she will also say she just isn't "crazy about him". The feeling is mutual on his part too ...


Mitch: Lover of all things sports. He is currently in baseball, just finished basketball... Loves rides and is also a joker. Not real impressed with missing one game and two practices of baseball due to this trip but is starting to show some excitement.

All of us LOVE to eat so you will see lots of food pics in the upcoming trip report.

Trip report will be loaded with pics!

Next Installment: Where we are staying and what we are planning for each day!

Hope someone finds me and report!

[tink1957]

I'm first & looking forward to a new report. You're right about there not being enough of them.

You've got a great looking family, hope you all have a blast on vacation.

[angela3676]

Great pre-trip report! Love it! I can't wait for more!

[ATAfamily]

Awesome! Can't wait to hear all about your upcoming trip.

[Lou Holtz]

Originally Posted by DISNEYLOVER70

I decided that there just wasn't enough Universal Studios trip reports so here goes:

You're certainly right about that.

[xApril]

Great! Can't wait for more. Lots of people have been beginning a trip report these days which is always nice.

[DISNEYLOVER70]

Hello! Thanks to all who have found me! I was so worried no would read it! I will being posting my itinerary later on this morning!

[DISNEYLOVER70]

Itinerary :

Tuesday April 13th: Arrive in Orlando at 10:30 a.m.

Pick up rental car (Jeep Grand Cherokee) and head to Comfort Suites Universal. It will be too early for our room probably but we will check and then head over to Universal. We purchased the $99/7 day park passes ! Spend the day at Universal or IOA not sure which yet. Meeting a friend for dinner at CityWalk, not sure where yet. Then off to front row of Blue Man Group at 8:00 p.m. Then back to Comfort Suites to crash......We will be getting up at 2:00 a.m. to catch our flight that morning so we are going to be whoooooooped by then.

Wednesday April 14th: Sleep in, if we can, and head to Cocoa Beach to spend the day. Not sure what all to do there, but hoping to do some putt putt golf, siteseeing, etc. Slow gear all day hopefully. A nice dinner somewhere and back to Comfort Suites

Thursday April 15th: My 40th Birthday Check out of Comfort Suites and into the Hard Rock Hotel and hit the FOTL!! Do as much parks as we can and have a great dinner somewhere. Evening at the pool

Friday April 16th- Saturday April 17th : Basing these days on the weather forecast. We would like to spend an afternoon at the pool so whichever day is sunnier and warmer we will do that, the other we will head to the parks to redo what we liked or what we didn't get to do.

Sunday April 18th- Get up and check out of Hard Rock and return rental by noon and on plane at 2:30 to head home

I knew it was a short vacation but dang it seems even shorter now that I have typed it !

If anyone sees any problems with this itinerary, please please speak up ! Always open for suggestions and ideas

[DISNEYLOVER70]

I guess I should include the rest of the family that are affected by our vacation in case they come up during my trip report which I am sure they will

Meet Baxter, our 2 year old goldendoodle. A bundle of energy and big lovebug, the best dog we have ever had.



He had just gotten groomed before this picture. He had his "summer cut" cleaning up all his curly locks for the warm weather.

And here is Chloe:



She is a cat. Period. We love her tons, but she just really can't be bothered with anything at all. I think she may miss us, not sure. We have had her for about 4 years. We found her at a local humane society. She had been found on the streets in a nearby city eating out of dumpsters and whatever she could find. She has the life now and we are so happy we have her, moods and all.

[Coach81]

I'm here!!! Can't wait to follow you along!!!

[DISNEYLOVER70]

Originally Posted by Coach81

I'm here!!! Can't wait to follow you along!!!

Great! Glad to have you Coach!

[mcbailey]

I'm here!! Looking forward to your report!!! Your kids are going to Love HRH!

[Larrabe]

Awesome, great report!

And I had to smile about Mitch missing a game and practices. My boys have played travel baseball for eight years, so we can relate!

[DISNEYLOVER70]

Originally Posted by mcbailey

I'm here!! Looking forward to your report!!! Your kids are going to Love HRH!

Hi mcbailey!! Glad to have you here! I am hoping they love the Hard Rock! The pool looks awesome, I know I am going to love it!

[DISNEYLOVER70]

Originally Posted by Larrabe

Awesome, great report!

And I had to smile about Mitch missing a game and practices. My boys have played travel baseball for eight years, so we can relate!

Nice to know I have someone that feels my pain! He is so devoted to baseball and I am so grateful for that. 7th grade is the first year the school has a baseball team. He has been playing for an independent community center since he was 6 yrs old. This is also the first time he has had to "try out" and deal with "cuts". It is a 7th-8th grade team so there was a lot of talk about not many 7th graders getting on the team, yada yada yada. Only four 7th graders made the team and he was one of them so it was a MAJOR big deal for him/us. I sent the note in yesterday to the coach stating we would be on vacation and his absence and Mitch was so worried about him being upset with him. This is how he told me it went down:

Coach "Good job Mitchell, all you boys see this? When you are going to be absent, you let me know ahead of time and there is no problem. No worries Mitch. Where ya goin?"

Mitch "Universal" (yeah, he keeps it simple)

Coach "Did you buy me a ticket?"

Mitch "I didn't know I made the team when my mom bought them last year"
(makes no sense but he was nervous lol)

Coach "Well, next time I wanna go too."

Mitch "I want to go but I really want to play ball. My mom is upset I want to play ball more than go on vacation" (ok, so i think he made me sound mean here but again.....he was nervous. Yeah I will go with that)

Coach "There will be lots of ball playing when you get back. We will do our best without you, but you go have fun. I want to see a picture when you get back and you better be smiling and having fun"

You can probably tell from the conversation but his coach is amazing. Mitchell has a tremendous amount of respect for him. He is strict but he keeps it fun for the boys too. He was also Mitchell's coach in the fall for the school basketball team (again, first year school team and tryouts as well).

I will post some pictures from his first game, which is Monday, April 12, the day before we leave

I have a new camera I bought last week. Olympus SP-800UZ. Has a 30x zoom and will take rapid pictures so I am hoping to get some good ball pictures this year. Struggling right now to read the manual and figure it out...

Ok, after all that........welcome to my life larrabe