Two Trips for 2023! (PTR + Dec TR)-Completed 12/22

[Raeven]

For those of you who haven't read one of my trip reports before...






My name is Raeven! I'm a theme park fan, who equally loves Disney & Universal. And I'm also a big fan of Harry Potter, Halloween, delicious food, movies, and planning.

I have a couple trips coming up this year that I can't wait to share with you!

This year Josh and I are going on a 10 day trip for HHN/our 10 year anniversary. Plus Kayleigh and I have decided to make our Christmas trip to Universal and Disney an annual thing. (I'm also going on a trip to Charleston with Kayleigh in April for a long weekend which I'll talk about a little in this trip report).

Now onto my trip partners! This is Josh:



Josh is my boyfriend of 9.5 years. We started taking trips to Disney/Universal in 2015, and have gone just about every year since. His favorite trips are for HHN because we both love haunted houses. He also enjoys thrill rides, stand up comedy, boxing, delicious food, and Halloween.



My second trip partner this year is Kayleigh.



Kayleigh and I have been friends since 2020. We started talking because at the time we both made youtube videos, and realized we had a lot in common. Even after we both stopped making videos we kept talking, and eventually decided we needed to plan a trip so we could meet in person. We ended up deciding it would be fun to go to Disney/Universal during the holiday season last year. We had such a great trip, and although we did a lot there were still so many things we didn't get to, so we decided to make it an annual thing! Kayleigh is also a Slytherin and if you saw our last trip you'd know we share a love of themed outfits.



Currently: We're at about 6 months until our first Disney/Universal trip! (And about a month from the Charleston trip). I'll share everything I've booked for our trips this year in the next post.



Initial Plans
HHN Dates, Hotel Changes, & Charleston Plans
Final Charleston Plans

Trip Updates
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3
December Flights Booked!

HHN House Announcement & Christmas Trip Tickets
Jollywood Nights & MVMCP Tickets
Rush of Fear Passes & Stranger Things
Christmas Trip Plans
2 Weeks!
We Leave Tomorrow!

Christmas Trip
1st Trip to the Rainforest Cafe
Christmas Tribute Store
Orlando Informer Event Pt 1
Orlando Informer Event Pt 2
Animal Kingdom Pt 1
Animal Kingdom Pt 2 & Crazy Crowds
Ale & Compass/All Star Movies Review
MVMCP
Epcot
Jollywood Nights
Trip Wrap Up
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[schumigirl]

So good to see you back Raeven……weirdly Tom mentioned you today about how coincidental our second meet in Strong Water was with us sitting at the same tables as before!

Sounds like some lovely trips ahead with Josh and Kayleigh….

Look forward to reading about them……..

 

[macraven]

Looking forward to your trip review!

 

[Raeven]

So good to see you back Raeven……weirdly Tom mentioned you today about how coincidental our second meet in Strong Water was with us sitting at the same tables as before!​

Thank you, haha what a coincidence! ​

Sounds like some lovely trips ahead with Josh and Kayleigh….​

I'm so excited!​

Look forward to reading about them……..​

I look forward to reading about yours too!​

Looking forward to your trip review!​

Thank you! ​

 

[KathyM2]

Glad I found your next PTR. Will be fun to see what you have in store!!

 

[Raeven]

Glad I found your next PTR. Will be fun to see what you have in store!!​

Thanks for following along!​

 

[Raeven]

Charleston Trip-33 days
HHN Trip-26 weeks
Xmas Trip-38 weeks

Here are the trip plans I have so far!



Charleston Trip

Everything is basically planned for Charleston because we're going next month, and unlike the parks it doesn't need to have as many things reserved. I'm flying in and Kayleigh is driving there so we'll have a car. We're staying at Folly Beach, and spending time there, around downtown Charleston, and at a few other locations around the area. Very few of the restaurants we're looking at take reservations so there's not much more planning I have to do for this one.

HHN Trip

We bought our flights recently for this trip too, and I have the hotel booked where we'll spend the first weekend (Aventura). I'm waiting to see what the Disney discounts will be for the 2 days we'll be over there, and I'll probably book a suite at Dockside for the 2 remaining nights. For this trip I'll probably get us MNSSHP tickets and a 1 day ticket for F&W at Epcot, and then Rush of Fear passes with EP whenever they go on sale. We are mostly planning on relaxing and going to HHN this trip so we didn't renew our Universal AP's.

Xmas Trip

I do actually have a hotel booked for this one already because we didn't have as many choices left last year by the time we booked. I booked us at the Swan for the Disney portion of our trip (4 days), and we'll probably do Aventura again for the other 2, but I'm waiting to see what the discounts look like through the Orlando Informer website since we'll be attending the event again. Southwest flights open in early May for this time period so I'm hoping to get a good one since the times for Sep were better than last year. For this trip we will get the Orlando Informer tickets when they come out, MVMCP tickets, and 2 day Disney tickets so we can go to AK and Epcot.


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[amalone1013]

I need to come back in like, 2 weeks right? Bc I always show up right before the first trip

 

[Raeven]

I need to come back in like, 2 weeks right? Bc I always show up right before the first trip ​

Yes we're a little over 2 weeks out from the first trip ​

 

[Raeven]

Charleston Trip-20 days
HHN Trip-24 weeks
Xmas Trip-36 weeks



Charleston Trip

I was able to switch my flight to an earlier time! Originally when we booked this trip I booked a night flight because I didn't want Kayleigh to have to drive in the middle of the night, but a few weeks ago she decided to visit a friend that lives in SC right before our trip so that she'd already be there. Ever since I've been looking at earlier flights, but the one I wanted was +$150 than the one I'd already booked. Last week I noticed the 5 am flight was the same price as my current flight so I booked that. Now we get to spend an extra day there!

I also sent Kayleigh our itinerary this week and it looks like this:

Thurs-We're going to explore Folly Beach (where our hotel is), and shop on King St. We're going to Poe's Tavern for dinner on Sullivan's Island.

Fri-Because we have a car we're thinking of taking a trip to Myrtle Beach this day to see all the cheesy, touristy attractions. If we decide not to go we'll probably just go to the beach and do Top Golf in Charleston instead.

Sat-We're going to tour some local attractions and dinner is at an Italian place called Wild Olive that looked really good.

Sun-We're going to do more shopping and go to the aquarium.

Mon-We'll be leaving right after breakfast.

HHN Trip

We finally have dates for HHN! And this year it looks like both Wednesdays we're there will be event dates (usually one of our Wednesdays is not). So we could be going to HHN up to 7 nights!



Since we'll be at HHN most of the nights I decided it would be easiest to just stay at Aventura the whole time so I extended our booking. I think we'll be fine to just Uber around when/where we need to. ​

 

[christophfam]

I live near Wild Olive and it is amazing although a bit far out from Folly and downtown. You will definitely need reservations. They are released exactly two weeks out on Resy and will book up fast. I’ve also found most of the better downtown restaurants require reservations and are fully booked a couple of weeks out.

Looking forward to your Charleston part of the trip report if you share it! When you live somewhere for ages, you forget about all the the touristy things to do.

 

[schumigirl]

Good to see you back Raeven.

I`m looking forward to your Charleston trip as I know very little of that area except for a little of the history.

And Coronado Springs looks beautiful too!!

 

[KathyM2]

Fri-Because we have a car we're thinking of taking a trip to Myrtle Beach this day to see all the cheesy, touristy attractions.

Funny I've always wanted to see that area too. I've driven to and from south Florida many times and somehow never made it there. One day!! If you go I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it.

Top Golf in Charleston instead.

I love Top Golf. It's so much fun. And I hate actual golf. Have you been to one before, I can't remember?

churro waffles

Yummmmm!! That sounds delicious!

 

[Raeven]

I live near Wild Olive and it is amazing although a bit far out from Folly and downtown. You will definitely need reservations. They are released exactly two weeks out on Resy and will book up fast. I’ve also found most of the better downtown restaurants require reservations and are fully booked a couple of weeks out.​

I know it’s a ways out, but we were looking for a good Italian place and when I saw a video about Wild Olive I was like that’s the one! We do have a car though and a backup idea.

We’re not at 2 weeks yet but will be soon so I’m just waiting to make them. Most the places we’re going don’t seem to have reservations, (I think the only other one we have reservations for is Halls Chophouse).
​

Looking forward to your Charleston part of the trip report if you share it! When you live somewhere for ages, you forget about all the the touristy things to do.​

Yes I’ll definitely share it in here! ​

Good to see you back Raeven.

I`m looking forward to your Charleston trip as I know very little of that area except for a little of the history.

And Coronado Springs looks beautiful too!!​

I’m excited too! I’ve never been.

It’s such a pretty hotel. I love the tower. ​

Funny I've always wanted to see that area too. I've driven to and from south Florida many times and somehow never made it there. One day!! If you go I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it.​

I’ll do a little report in here if we do go. ​

I love Top Golf. It's so much fun. And I hate actual golf. Have you been to one before, I can't remember?​

Yes! I went to one in Denver. ​

Yummmmm!! That sounds delicious!​

They do!​

 

[Raeven]

Charleston Trip-5 days!
HHN Trip-22 weeks
Xmas Trip-34 weeks

& Happy (early) Easter!



We're very close to the first trip of the year! I'm almost fully packed too, and only need to add a few more things.

Charleston Trip

Right after I told you guys I switched to a 5 am flight we ran into a bit of a snag. Since Kayleigh is driving the plan was for her to already be there visiting another friend but when she went to confirm that, the other friend told her she'd been unable to get the time off and they'd have to do it another time. So now she will be driving to Charleston the day I'm arriving, and when the 9 am flight went down in price we decided it was best to change to that because I didn't want her to have to drive all night if it could be avoided. The only real difference is I have a longer layover on this one, and get in a few hours later but it's still earlier than the original flight.

We've also changed/refined our plans a little for the trip. The first day we still plan to spend time at Folly Beach and go to Poe's Tavern on Sullivan's Island so I don't think that's changed much.

But we ended up changing our day trip to Myrtle Beach and deciding we'd like to go to Savannah instead which is about the same distance away. I think we're going to take one of the hop on/hop off trolley tours so we have parking, and so we can get off see whatever we want and then hop on and go to other areas. I'm excited because Savannah looks gorgeous and there's so many cool things to see there.

Then with the remaining two days we're going to spend time shopping on King St and see sights around there, go to the aquarium, and tour some historical places/homes. We have reservations at Poogan's Porch, Wild Olive, and Oak Steakhouse.


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[KathyM2]

I think we're going to take one of the hop on/hop off trolley tours so we have parking, and so we can get off see whatever we want and then hop on and go to other areas. I'm excited because Savannah looks gorgeous and there's so many cool things to see there.

I absolutely love Savannah and that trolley tour is so much fun. Also...it's the most dog friendly place I've ever been - they even let dogs on the trolley tour!

 

[Raeven]

HHN Trip-18 weeks
Xmas Trip-30 weeks

I'm back from Charleston! (Well I've been back a couple of weeks

The biggest thing is we decided to cancel our short trip in June. I had a lot of trouble with air travel on this last trip (including the worst airport experience of my life) so I'm not eager to travel again so soon especially when every flight seems to be getting delayed or canceled lately. I think it makes more sense to just do most of the things we talked about for June during our September trip. The only thing I actually bought that couldn't be refunded were Orlando Informer tickets, but I was able to get a one time credit with them that I can use towards the meetup in December.

Speaking of September, I bought MNSSHP tickets today & there's a lot of speculation saying Stranger Things is coming to HHN which I would be very excited about!




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[Raeven]

HHN Trip-17 weeks
Xmas Trip-29 weeks

Last weekend Josh and I went to see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3. We saw it in 3D IMAX, and it was so good! (Of course I had to get the popcorn bucket and cup ).



I would definitely recommend seeing it. It was the perfect end to the trilogy, and I loved the ending for all the characters'. I'm so happy to read so many good reviews of it too since I'm a big fan of James Gunn's work. Out of all the Marvel movies, I've always felt like the Guardians movies were the most meaningful and had the best story/characters.

​

 

[KathyM2]

there's a lot of speculation saying Stranger Things is coming to HHN which I would be very excited about!

This is really exciting...Stranger things at HHN would be super cool!

We loved the name because we both love the movie Glass Onion

I loved that movie too! Too bad the restaurant didn't have anything to do with it!

We went to see Air, and we both liked it.

Agreed. I went because I really felt like seeing a movie and there was nothing good playing...but was glad I did!

Last weekend Josh and I went to see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3. We saw it in 3D IMAX, and it was so good! (Of course I had to get the popcorn bucket and cup ).

Haven't seen this yet but looking forward to it!

Downtown is where most the shopping, restaurants, and historical sites are, and ideally this is probably where you'd want to stay if you were coming to Charleston (especially if you didn't have a car).

Yeah when I was in Charleston I wished we were staying downtown where you could walk to things.

Our favorite of this flight was the strawberry. All the ice cream was made there, and although we thought the chocolate would be our favorite, the strawberry had the best flavor.

What could be better than an ice cream flight??? YUM

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

I’m sorry I didn’t see this trip report sooner! So good to see you back on the boards!