Florida Trip Day 9: Universal Studios Orlando

August 12, 2016 by edwinandlisa

Universal Studios… Eh, been there, done that, this will be a short day. We’ll just take our time and get ready to return to Islands of Adventure on Saturday. Or so I thought!

Outside one of the entrances of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

You enter and are magically transported to Diagon Alley.

We spent our entire afternoon just admiring the architecture and detail into creating this amazing place

One of the newest rides is a roller coaster “Escape from Gringott’s”, and as you make your way through the line you go through the bank lobby and are “greeted” by these bank tellers — just like the movie

We had a late lunch at the Leaky Cauldron restaurant, and once again we were just blown away by decor and authenticity of what one might find in Harry Potter

Inside one of the stores

Triple decker Knight bus from Harry Potter

Inside the Knight bus

Ukrainian Ironbelly dragon keeping watch

Flying Fish Market Show

Scenes from the parade

Despicable Me was one of our favorite rides because they star the Minions!

We were pretty beat from our long day yesterday and another early day today, so we headed back to our hotel a little after 8pm

I really thought that our day at Universal Studios would be short and that we’d be back to the hotel by early evening. Well, I was wrong. Even though we arrived right at opening, we did not finish touring the park during our 11 hours there! There was just too much to see and do, and as a result, we will be returning tomorrow instead of going back to Islands of Adventure.

Thoughts:

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios features Diagon Alley, and I actually liked it more than the Hogsmeade Village at Islands of Adventure. There are just so many nooks and crannies to explore, and I just can’t get over the fine details.
We were rained on once again during the afternoon thunderstorms, although yesterday’s lasted almost twice as long. Fortunately we were both enjoying the indoor areas of Harry Potter and never really got wet.
There are so many great shows and performances throughout the day — dancing, singing, acrobatics, percussion performances and more — this is the area that Universal Studios wins hands down versus Islands of Adventure.
The rides were a great surprise because we haven’t been on any of these new ones. In the past, they were all good but rather ho-hum, but now they are worth two or three rides. We rode Gringotts three times and the Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket twice. We would have ridden Despicable Me another go-around but the wait had already ballooned to an hour’s wait — probably because it is the first ride that you see when you enter the park.
12 hours seems like a long time to spend at a theme park, and it is but it isn’t because there is always something more to see and do. We did not get to all of the attractions at Universal Studios that we wanted to do, so we will be returning again tomorrow to finish those off as well as ride some things over again!

Daily Expenses Ledger:

$111.15	Universal Studios ticket, average over 3 days for 2 people
$21.82	Dinner at Leaky Cauldron Universal Studios
$2.00	Hotel tip
$2.10	Total Lyft cost after discount — otherwise it would have been $12.10
$137.07	TOTAL

Florida Trip Day 6: South Carolina Lowcountry Meanderings

August 9, 2016 by edwinandlisa

A day of road tripping the South Carolina Lowcountry region…

First stop: Summerville, SC, the official birthplace of Sweet Tea.

What is interesting to note is that we could not find a restaurant in Summerville that claimed the best sweet tea — in fact, the lady at the visitor center recommended McDonald’s as having really good sweet tea. Sold!

Summerville’s Azalea Park

We took in Summerville’s Walking Tour of Homes and Flowers and enjoyed more great architecture like this Victorian in the Queen Anne style. The current family has occupied this house for almost 100 years.

From Summerville, we visited the Frampton Plantation. This farmhouse was built in 1868.

Lisa enjoys her rocking chair and the view of the live oak from the porch.

Next up: a self-guided walking tour of the historic old town of Bluffton…

Church of the Cross, 1857.

Bluffton public boat dock. A huge rain storm pounds the earth in the distance

May River

Our last stop was to Hilton Head Island. We drove around checking out the expensive vacation homes and ended up at this public beach.

Coligny Beach

Definitely a great place for families to play and enjoy nature! We were pretty happy that the ocean breeze cooled us down from all the sticky heat.

Daily Expense Ledger:

$0.00	Holiday Inn – paid for with award points
$1.00	McDonald’s Sweet Tea
$14.65	Gas
$28.90	Dinner – Golden Corral
$18.50	Columbia Outlet store
$63.05	TOTAL

Florida Trip Day 5: Charleston Meanderings

August 8, 2016 by edwinandlisa

Another full day in the South, this time touring the #1 city to visit in the world according to the readers of Travel + Leisure magazine…

Lisa is a history teacher, so naturally we started with the place where the first shots of the Civil War were fired. Fort Sumter National Monument.

Since Fort Sumter is on an island, the only way to get there was via boat. So we took the first departure of the day at 9:30am.

Approaching Fort Sumter.

Visitors are allowed an hour to explore the fort before returning to the mainland.

After our visit to Fort Sumter, we had a small lunch and then took a Charleston history walking tour with Damn Yankee Tours. Our guide, Paulette, took us to major sights and others not-so-major…

St. Phillips Church

Our guide, Paulette, is a retired history teacher and since we were the only ones on the tour, she was our own personal guide for almost three hours

After our tour, we continued with the Old Exchange Building and Provost Dungeon — here we had a docent lead us through the dungeon area and told stories of some famous prisoners here, like Stede Bonnet, aka “The Gentleman Pirate”

The Old Exchange Building is where the Declaration of Independence was read for the citizens of South Carolina

Lisa is now able to check this one off and complete her “Halls of Freedom” list

Dinner at Fleet Landing, with regional specialties Hush Puppies stuffed with shrimp and lobster, and our main dish of shrimp and Andouille sausage over grits.

Charleston harbor

We concluded our evening with a stroll down the waterfront…

…and through more neighborhood streets

And finally, dessert!

Mmmm, pralines!

Expense ledger:

$0.00	Hyatt hotel – paid for with award points
$39.00	Sumpter Ferry Tour
$10.93	Souvenirs
$7.74	Subway lunch
$29.00	Damn Yankee tour and tip
$10.00	Old Exchange Building admission
$45.00	Fleet Landing dinner & tip
$3.17	Souvenir
$1.61	Dessert Canoli
$16.00	Parking fee
$162.45	TOTAL

The Anatomy of Vacation Costs: Canadian Train Adventure

August 2, 2016 by edwinandlisa

Here is a full breakdown of our expenses for our most recent trip:

Days: 24

Total spent: $5,059.52

Per day breakdown: $210.81

Per person / per day breakdown: $105.41

Cost	Category

$400.00	United Airlines Philadelphia to Portland
$1,437.00	Via Rail Vancouver – Winnipeg – Toronto
$51.00	Bolt Bus Portland to Vancouver
$94.00	Winnipeg Airbnb 2 nights
$60.00	High Bluff Airbnb 1 night
$165.00	Toronto Airbnb 3 nights
$105.00	Via Rail Toronto to Montreal
$95.00	VaiRail train ticket Ottawa – Quebec City
$45.00	Bus ticket Quebec City to Montreal
$50.00	Amtrak Montreal to Port Kent, NY
$16.00	Ferry crossing Port Kent to Burlington, VT
$152.00	Amtrak Burlington, VT to Philadelphia, PA
$213.00	Montreal Hyatt 3 nights – Points + Cash redemption
$207.00	Philadelphia Airbnb 3 nights
$89.00	Ottawa Hotwire Best Western Hotel 1 night
$70.00	Ottawa Airbnb 1 night
$134.00	Hotwire Quebec City Hotel PUR 2 nights
$80.00	Hotwire hotel King of Prussia
$0.00	Burlington hotel 2 nights (used points)
$111.50	Public bus / metro / hotel shuttle driver
$18.00	Uber & Lyft rides
$60.00	Greyhound bus Kingston to Ottawa
$72.00	Tips: Train & Hotel
$933.52	Food – groceries, restaurants, etc.
$63.00	Car rental & gas
$114.00	Souvenirs / gifts
$220.50	Attractions – tours, admissions, fees, bike rental, etc.
$4.00	Laundry

Breaking it down even further into major categories, I found some surprises…

$1,112.00	Hotels / Airbnb
$2,603.50	All Transport
$933.52	Food
$190.00	Tips / Gifts / Misc
$220.50	Attractions

$5,059.52	Total

Over half of our travel expenses were related to transportation! Granted, this was specifically a train-oriented vacation, but I didn’t realize just how big of a chunk it would take.

The hotels “only” costed us $1112, or 22% of our travel expenses. Averaged out over 23 nights, that breaks down to $46.33 per night. Keeping in mind that four of those nights were overnight on the train, the real cost comes to $1112 / 19 nights = $58.52. We used a combination of Hotwire hotels, Airbnb’s and our credit card reward points to keep our costs low.

Finally, we originally budgeted $60 total per day for our food expenses. Taking out the four days on the train, our average per day came to $933.52 / 20 = $46.67. This is kinda surprising too, since we had a lot of meals that costed us around $30, especially in Philadelphia when we just had to eat at Sabrina’s every day! One reason why I think we came below our food budget is because Lisa and I aren’t terribly huge eaters — although I have been known to eat mounds of food at the buffet, when it is just Lisa and I we usually just split an entree or we will snack during the day. It also helps that the US exchange rate was so favorable when we were in Canada — basically everything was 20% off. So when we ate out at a restaurant, we just figured we were getting free service gratuities since we typically tip 20% anyways.

All in all our vacation costed us just a shade over $5,000 for 24 days. When planning for trips, my magic number is about $200 per day, or about $100 per person per day. This includes everything — from transportation and accommodations to food and attractions. When budgeting for a cruise vacation, this is the same framework I use — if a cruise costs $100 per person per day with everything included (port fees, taxes, tipping, cruise fare), then I consider it a good deal. Sometimes though the airfare costs too much to get there and it just isn’t worth it. I’m getting a little ahead of myself, but you get the idea that our vacation budget tries to stay around $100 per person per day. And for this recently completed 24-day train trip in Canada and the East Coast, it was pretty close to budget!

For a breakdown of other vacations and trips we’ve taken, be sure to click on the category “Anatomy of Vacation Costs.”

Adventure Calls Us

Not All Who Wander Are Lost … But We Are Lost Sometimes!

Tag Archives: expenses

Florida Trip Day 9: Universal Studios Orlando

Florida Trip Day 6: South Carolina Lowcountry Meanderings

Florida Trip Day 5: Charleston Meanderings

The Anatomy of Vacation Costs: Canadian Train Adventure