Preparing for Our Orlando Family Vacation

We're the typical Summer Vacation Family. We usually take one major vacation each Summer with the kids. We load up the mini-van, toss in the kids, and head out for a long drive to our destination. As the kids have gotten older, we typically ask for their input on our destination, with the caveat that at the end of the day, the parents get the final say. And, since we live in the mid-west, we typically gravitate towards warm, tropical regions with beaches. Our favorite destination is Hilton Head Island, and I originally thought this would be our vacation spot again this year.

But, the kids had other plans. They really wanted to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, located at Islands of Adventure in Universal Studios, Orlando. (For those of you who, like me, had never before visited Universal Studios, there are actually two parks in Universal Studios, Orlando: Universal Studios, their first theme park, and Islands of Adventure, their second theme park). And since the kids were ages 11 to 16, we agreed that this would be a good time to go.

Once we made our decision (in early Spring), I ordered the book, "Beyond Disney: The Unofficial Guide to Universal Orlando, Sea World, and the Best of Central Florida". I had previously ordered "The Unofficial Guide Walt Disney World" back in 2004 when we first took the kids to see Mickey, but since I had never before visited Universal Studios, I knew that I needed to read up before we set out. I'm so glad I did. One of my favorite features of the Unofficial Guides are the touring plans included in the books. They do actually work! We followed them to a tee, especially on our 2004 trip to all of the Disney Parks. The kids were much younger then, and I have to tell you, the plans kept us sane, and greatly minimized our waiting times. By using the touring plans, our longest wait at the Magic Kingdom was 30 minutes (and only once during the entire day) for Splash Mountain.

To plan for our trip, it became quite clear that we, the parents, would first need to watch all of the Harry Potter movies. Yes, I admit, up to this point, we had managed to avoid watching any of the movies or reading any of the books. The kids, however, had seen all of the movies and our oldest had read all of the books multiple times. And, in order to truly appreciate the theme park, you have to have previous knowledge of all things Harry. So, we had several family movie nights with the kids and actually enjoyed watching the movies. We were soon hooked on Harry and as excited as the kids to go on our vacation.

One of my early, and important tasks is to map out our vacation itinerary each year. I'm a planner and I don't like to "wing it" on family vacations. We originally planned to visit Universal Studios for three days, which would leave us with extra days to go to the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and the beach. Orlando has so many options, and if we would have had completely unlimited funds and an extra day or two, we would have added Sea World to our plans as well as perhaps a day of outlet mall shopping.

Since we live in the mid-west, getting to Orlando would not be a quick drive. We decided to drive down in one day (or, actually night), and then drive back in two days, stopping in the Atlanta area to visit an outlet mall while there. We knew we'd be exhausted with the drive, but decided it was worth it to gain an extra day of vacation time.

Our final major task before leaving was to book our lodging. Orlando has so many choices that it is a bit mind-boggling. Even though we knew we weren't going to be there much (since we'd be at the parks most of the time), we knew from past vacation experiences that a condo was the best option for us. Granted, I did first investigate both the Universal and Disney properties, but their prices were just too unreasonable for us. And, we knew if we went that route, we'd have a very small space in which to live at the end of each day (and with exhausted kids and parents, that didn't sound like a desirable option). We decided on the Vista Cay condos, located just minutes from Universal Studios. It was a great decision, reasonably priced, and provided tons of space.

So, we were ready to go! Stay tuned for my next post about our Orlando Family Vacation!