Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind

 We've been Disney Annual Passholders for like 10 years or something now. (Crazy right?) And, sometimes I complain about them (especially now that we have park passes). But, occasionally we get a good perk. And last week we got one of them, with a preview day to ride the new roller coaster: Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind! The roller coaster won't be open to the public until May 27th and then you'll either have to be lucky enough to snag a virtual queue, or pay for Lightning Lane. But, Passholders were told they were going to get a chance to ride it early! We just got lucky with me checking my email at the right time telling me registration was open, so we were able to snag four spots. For whatever reason, that was before we knew Peyton wasn't coming home until June- so it was just lucky he was oddly not connected to our account the right way to get one for him too. 

Anyway, not only do we have our usual Disney passes, but this year, we were also gifted Universal Annual Passes. We hadn't exchanged our certificate for the actual passes yet, though. I wanted to do it sometime before my whole family got here in June for a Universal trip, and time is running out on that. So, I decided to see about spending the night in Orlando and doing a day at Universal before our Galaxy Rewind preview. 

Unfortunately, our preview was the day after Mother's Day, so assuming we stayed at Universal the night before, we'd be gone on Mother's Day and not here for our usual board game day. That was ok, because like I said, Peyton's not here anyway- so we'll celebrate once he gets back. (He's just dying to play a game of Lifeboats with us, I'm sure). 

So instead of board games, we got up on Sunday and headed to Orlando. I knew it was a stretch to get Calib and Hayden to Orlando before lunch time, so I enticed them with some White Castle. The only White Castle in Florida is in Orlando, and Calib had never been there before (we went during CEO without him) so he really wanted to go. It took forever (I'm talking nearly an hour) to order and get our food. But, once we did, everyone was pretty pleased. 

After lunch, we headed over to our Universal hotel. Here's the thing, Disney barely has affordable rooms anymore. They've gotten really expensive. Even the "value" resorts are over $200 a night on a passholder discount. What Universal lacks in ambiance and massive-ness, it picks up in great deals, especially for Passholders. We stayed at one of Universals "value" resorts called Endless Summer. There's actually two hotels here that are very similar: Dockside Inn and Surfside Inn. And they have bigger family "suites", for get this $135 a night on passholder discounts! And this isn't even the cheapest time of year to go (we will be returning in the fall when these suites will clock in under $100 bucks). 

So, the room isn't like super fancy or anything. It doesn't have a full kitchen or anything like that, but you get three queen beds: two in the main area... 

And one in it's own bedroom, which is awesome for us. Calib snores, and Asa has a really hard time sleeping in the same room with him. Also, without Peyton, everyone got their own beds. 

And then you have this little kitchen area, too. You get a sink, a larger mini fridge a coffee maker and a microwave. And a table that will seat probably 5. It's not a full sized kitchen, but you don't even get the microwave or table in normal Disney rooms: just a mini fridge, and it's not that big (unless of course, you're in a DVC room- then you get the same sort of set up). The microwave was nice, because I brought Maid Rites (think Sloppy Joes) for dinner, knowing I would be able to heat it up. 

It's not uber fancy or anything, but at that price point, I felt like it was a total steal. Especially when you're used to Disney prices (although, we're renting DVC points for part of our anniversary and got a great deal on Jambo House which I'm totally excited about!) We'll be staying here again for sure. Even with Peyton it will be enough room for everyone. 

Speaking of Peyton, he wasn't here for this trip, but he was on the AAA voucher for the annual passes. Luckily, instead of waiting in line at the park to change it over to actual passes, we were able to do it at the Front desk, and the lady who helped us, nicely gave us Peyton's pass without him even being there, which was awesome- because I thought that might be a problem. 

We decided before we went over to the park, we'd take a dip in the pool. Like Disney Value resorts, there isn't any slide or anything. But, you do get a huge zero entry pool with some sandy areas, tons of lounge chairs, and even a pool bar. 

After our trip to the pool, we decided to head on over to the parks. You can take a shuttle, but we decided to drive over, since Asa's pass covers parking. It's a quick couple of minutes over I-4. Technically, you could walk (Asa and I once walked to Universal from the CEO hotel, so we know), but it is a bit of a trip. 

The weather was pretty nice (our days on that are numbered), and the park was relatively not busy. We watched the parade, and waited for Asa and Calib to go on Rip-Ride Rockit. But, when they got off, they did not feel all that great. And then we started recounting the last time anyone had been on a more intense coaster than like Space Mountain. And, it's been a minute. 

Our next stop was Diagon Alley, my FAVORITE part of Universal, and kind of the whole reason I come. Escape from Gringotts is probably my favorite ride in Orlando, and it was walk on! 

And of course, no trip to Diagon Alley is complete without a Butterbeer. I missed hot Butterbeer season, sadly. But cold Butterbeer is good too. 

We made our way around to Springfield, and rode ET because Calib remembered it as being awesome (his memory did not serve). Still, it was fun. 

And then we headed back to take the Hogwarts Express! Hayden swung by the Knight Bus for a chat with the conductor.. 

...and then I sent Peyton a bunch of pictures from the London Section of the park. 

He replied with 'oh, it's the only Public transportation in Florida!' He's not wrong. Public transportation here sucks. But, I swear if that Brightline train ever gets built from Tampa to Orlando, I am never driving to Disney again. 

We took the train over to Islands of Adventure (I love this feature so much!) 

And ta da! We were at Hogsmeade. 

Man, my new Google Pixel 6 takes really good pictures. 

Hayden and I waited real quick while Asa and Calib went on Forbidden Journey, and then we headed off enjoying lots of walk on rides. 

The park closed at 9, and we stayed until the very end. But, we also swung by CityWalk on our way back to the room to get some breakfast for the morning. Apparently you can now mobile order Voodoo Donuts. Yay! 

CityWalk is so pretty at night. I'm excited to stay in June and visit here for basically every meal! 

When we got back to the room, everyone was pretty hungry, so I heated up the meat for the sandwiches, and pulled out all the other stuff I had brought. Plus, some of us had our donuts. 

We didn't pay for the pretty view which would have included the pool, but at night our view wasn't too bad. 

And then we nosed around to see what was on (they had a fun voice controlled remote!) and watched the Lightning. They're in the playoffs again, and despite a close one, they've advanced to the second round. 

When we originally booked our passholder preview, I told Asa to aim for the afternoon, because I thought it would be hard to get anyone there before then. We ended up with a 12:00 time, which was perfect since check out was 11. We said goodbye to our room and headed on over to Disney. It was about a 20 minute trip. 

We arrived at Epcot and got in line for Spaceship Earth. 

And by the time we were done there it was time to get in line for Guardians. 

You guys, check out my custom ears I made just for this special occasion! 

The plaza outside the ride is really cool, but if you weren't part of the preview you can't get all that close. The line for us started way back over by the new Creations store, but it moved super fast. 

And before we knew it, we were inside! The queue itself is really cool. I won't spoil anything, but there's lots of music, cameos and models. 

Now, we were one of the first days of passholder previews. The Thursday before was media day, though, so there were lots of reviews out. Some people said it made them really motion sick. So, I was a little nervous. Other people said it wasn't any more intense than Slinky Dog Dash (and I LOVE me some Slinky Dog Dash). Still, I was a little worried about how I'd do on this one. Though, to be fair, I never questioned it. I've done EVERYTHING at Disney, remember? Of course I have to do this! So, we loaded in after waiting probably about 40 minutes. 

So, what did we think? The guys LOVED it. Like, best ride in Orlando, loved it. Me? I had to keep my eyes closed 90% of the time. It wasn't even the backwards launch that got to me. I knew that was going to happen, but it was the spinning and a little up and a little down and a little around over and over and over again that got to me. Couple that with lots of stuff going on with screens around you, and I was done for. Luckily at the end, you do stop and see a little scene and that helped me gather myself before I had to get off the ride. Like I said, the guys loved it. 10 out of 10. Even Hayden, who isn't a big roller coaster fan (there are no big hills or anything like that though). Oh, and in case you're wondering, there are six different songs that are played during the ride. Each ride you get a random one: ours was "Conga". 

After all of that, we were ready for some food. We got some nachos in Mexico, but of course it's Flower and Garden Festival time, so there are also festival booths. 

We stopped by Sunshine Griddle and got ourselves the Shrimp and Grits, Fried Cinnamon Roll Bites, and a Fruit Loop Milkshake (last year it was blue- this year, purple!) 

These were all winners for us last year, the entire booth is delicious, so it was a no brainer to get all of this when we saw it without a line (Epcot was not as un-busy as Universal had been the day before, btw). 

We also realized Calib and Hayden hadn't ever been to the new Club Cool, so we stopped by there so they could try out all the new flavors. The Chinese coke is a total disappointment though. Everyone loved that one at the last Club Cool, but they've changed it up and now nobody is a fan. 

And that was it for our quick trip to Epcot. 

We're actually working on a new set of Disney passes too. And this time we added the Water Parks and more option. For just $100 bucks you can go to a water park, or play a round of footgolf, mini golf or regular golf every single day. No black out dates. (I think it also includes admission to Wide World of Sports). It's actually a pretty good deal, even though you can only do one "Extra" a day. And, good deals at Disney are a thing of the past, so we're excited about this one.  We decided after Epcot, to go over to Typhoon Lagoon- since we hadn't been there in YEARS. This one was closed basically all of covid and just opened a few months ago, so it was for sure pre-pandemic the last we were there. 

We had lots of fun- did lots of slides, spent a ton of time in the wave pool, and took a spin on the lazy river. But man, we're already really flying through the sunscreen. Good thing we can get all that on the HSA now! 

After our afternoon at Typhoon Lagoon, the guys were exhausted. They spent the last half hour or so WAY out in the wave pool, where they swam on top of the giant wave over and over again, so they were super tired. But, they were hungry, so to Disney Springs we went for some Chicken Guy, which is also mobile order these days- yay! 

Also, not sure how prices haven't really gone up here and/or portion sizes haven't been cut, but I'm not going to complain. It was delicious as always, and we got lots of extra sauces to bring home! 

So, that was it for our two days in Orlando. We decided that we might be on to something with a one night trip. You get to do lots of stuff, but I don't have to pack a ton, and we don't have to worry a lot about the dogs (shout out to Jeff and Kelly for watching them- even if Porkchop tried to make a great escape-- don't worry Jeff got him back home ok!) 

Next Up: Summer is coming, and I'm depressed about it-- so we're enjoying the nice weather while we can