Since my last post, I have been back to Disney twice but have neglected to recap my adventures for my loyal readers! Alas, it is time to get the stories told!

The first trip was in late August. This one consisted of just the hubs and I and we took to the road to begin the adventure. When we arrived in Orlando, we spent two nights at one of my favorite places, the Cabins at Fort Wilderness. You’ll remember those from my last post. It was first time that the hubs enjoyed one of the new cabins and he liked it as much as the daughter and I did back in July. Those things are the best! 10 out of 10. After those two nights, we moved over to Hard Rock Hotel at Universal Orlando to spend two more nights. On our last night, we drove up to Jekyll Island in Georgia for a little beach fun before heading home the next day. We were on the move for the whole trip but had a blast!

OK. So Disney first. We did all of the usual Disney things (and saw the renovated Country Bears Jamboree Show) but were also able to enjoy a special after hours event for Disney Vacation Club Members called Moonlight Magic. This one took place at Hollywood Studios from 9:30pm to 12:30am. All of the attractions were open, we got free snacks, there were special dance parties and characters, and even our own special showing of Fantasmic! So cool. These events are super hard to get signed up for nowadays but I’m so glad I secured a spot for us for this one.

Universal was a blast! Once we hopped over there, we really had a great time in the parks and at Hard Rock. We spent a decent amount of time in the pool there mid-afternoon each day until the rain kicked us out. Our room was as far away from the lobby as it could possibly be, literally at a stairwell, but that was PERFECT! We could go right down that stairwell and pop out at the pool entrance and at a sidewalk that connected directly to the walking path to the parks. Woot! I love it when we get those types of rooms.

We enjoyed a lot of time in the parks, riding the attractions, checking out the new Dreamworks Land, and giving me time to capture some great shots for future marketing. I had a training event at Universal while there so I was able to pick up some new knowledge and talk one-on-one with some of our sales staff in person which is always so valuable! We were also able to get amped up for Halloween Horror Nights by seeing some of the props that were out and ready for the event to officially start — right after we left, of course.

Up at Jekyll Island, we drove in just for the night to see what we could enjoy on our brief stopover. This island is super unique with Driftwood Beach at the north end and has been home to many TV shows and film productions. No shark teeth for me (darn it!) but this was an interesting place to visit and a new type of beach environment for me with the funky water color and driftwood.

The second trip was in mid-September. The hubs, the daughter, and I flew down to Orlando to visit Disney and Universal again for her annual birthday trip. We stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge at Disney and Sapphire Falls resort at Universal for this trip. The Front Desk at Animal Kingdom Lodge was able to snag us a partial savanna view for our ‘resort view’ room, which was super and unexpected. Nice birthday bonus!

We enjoyed some time at all four parks during our two nights there plus hit Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom on our last night. It was fantastic, as always! Maybe even better than our last one because we scored a super spot for the Boo to You parade on Main Street right across from Casey’s Corner. We had to grab it EARLY but it was worth it. That is our most favorite parade of all of them in the parks. I love seeing the Headless Horseman go by and the Haunted Mansion ghosts!

When we went over to Universal, our room took a while to be ready (because it was a huge Sapphire Suite!) so we spent the afternoon at the pool there. I really liked this pool as it had a neat raised up area across the middle of the pool to act like a bridge/path to get from one side of the pool to the other. The water across is very shallow so you can walk across the pool to find more seating, the restaurant, get to the water slide entrance, etc. Since our room wasn’t ready, we used the Fitness Center showers and changing areas which were very convenient for this purpose.

Once the room was ready, we got settled in. The daughter, being in college, had some school work to do so she got a big room service order for dinner and got to work. The hubs and I packed up and headed to Universal Studios for Halloween Horror Nights. Truth be told, work or no, the daughter didn’t want anything to do with Halloween Horror Nights anyway. This was my first time at HHN so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I decided to splurge and get a RIP Tour for us so we could skip all the lines for the houses and get up close seating for the Nightmare Fuel Nocturnal Circus show. This was EXCELLENT! I will be going to HHN next year and we will be doing a RIP Tour again for sure. There are two types, private and non-private. Non-private was what we did, with like 8-10 other people. Our guide was Jason from NJ and he was the best! We finished five of the ten houses in the first hour! We started at 6pm and were totally done by 9pm with all houses and Scare Zones done plus two decent breaks. Then Jason led us over to the show location and put us right in the second and third rows, super close to the stage. After the show was over, we were on our own to continue exploring and had the use of Express Pass for the attractions. Normally, the hubs goes alone and gets the Express Pass for the houses, gets started around 6pm, but doesn’t get finished until like 1am and doesn’t get to see the show (you need to line up early to get a spot). We were done and on the way back to the hotel by like 10:30pm. Amazing!

Let’s dip into the details on HHN. So ten houses and five Scare Zones. Food stands featuring event-themed items for purchase. Merchandise throughout the parks including the famous Tribute Store inside of Universal Studios. Most attractions remain open for the event. The Scare Zones are located in different places in the parks. They had a big one when you first entered the park where some Scare Actors ‘greeted’ the guests with chainsaws and some chasing. There was another themed like a medieval torture faire and one with characters from the Blumhouse films like M3GAN, Black Phone, The Purge, etc. I also enjoyed the zombies in the Swamp of the Undead and probably should’ve gone through it a second time. (Huge Walking Dead fan here.) The Scare Actors have the best costumes and makeup, really movie quality. I don’t know how they pull it off in the Orlando heat. The houses are either based on recent horror movies like A Quiet Place, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Insidious: The Further, etc. or original content like Triplets of Terror, Slaughterhouse Cinema 2, and Goblin’s Fest. The houses are like big mazes with Scare Actors that come out at you when you going through, props, excellent sets, fog, sounds (or no sound, in the case of A Quiet Place), etc. You get very immersed in each house as you go through it. Movie quality for sure! Then we have Nightmare Fuel Nocturnal Circus. This is best described as Cirque du Soleil meets a burlesque show. There is fire, acrobatics, aerials, stunts, dancing, and more. Definitely a must see for any HHN guest. By the way, guests are recommended to be 14 and up for this event by Universal. I did see smaller kids there, including the poor little boy crying his eyes out after going into the first Scare Zone, so keep that in mind. I also know of some younger teenagers who love scary movies that didn’t do so when the scary movie on the screen was now in person and in your face holding a chainsaw. The Scare Actors aren’t allowed to touch you, and you are forbidden from touching them, but they do get close.

Phew! That was a lot of recap! Two trips in the span of a couple of weeks might leave you thinking, how do you have enough to do each time? In reality though, we did completely different things on each trip and still left with a few things we didn’t get around to (here’s looking at you, Dead Coconut Club).

We’ll be back in Florida in January (that seems like forever!) but have some fun planned between now and then. Stay tuned!

xoxo,

Amber