Universal Islands of Adventure Theme Park

While staying in the Orlando area, we spent four days at two of the Universal theme parks. Two of the days were at Universal Islands of Adventure Theme Park.

Universal Orlando

Islands of Adventure:

Islands of Adventure

Hogsmeade:

Hogsmeade

We enjoy the Butterbeer there:

Butterbeer

We did the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride:

Hogsmeade

We checked out many of the shops, and bought a few souvenirs, including some sweet stuff from Honeydukes:

Honeydukes

Hogsmeade

Dinosaur selfie:

Dinosaur selfie

Comic area:

Comic area

Leaving Islands of Adventure at night:

Islands of Adventure

Another day, we started out with cheese curds and margaritas at Margaritaville:

Margaritaville

Then went on the Hulk roller coaster, which was the first time we’ve both ever been on a real roller coaster, with inversions and everything. We survived!

Hulk roller coaster

Then we went on a much more gentle ride, Storm Force Accelatron:

Storm Force Accelatron

A Hulk popcorn snack:

Hulk popcorn

Spiderman ride:

Spiderman

And Skull Island: Reign of Kong:

Skull Island: Reign of Kong

Natural Selections for another snack:

Natural Selections

Hogsmeade:

Hogsmeade

We were going to go on the Flight of the Hippogriff ride, but they had a major delay, so we bailed:

Flight of the Hippogriff

Time for more butterbeer:

Butterbeer

Cat in the Hat and Things:

Cat in the Hat and Things

Caro-Seuss-el:

Caro-Seuss-el

Hat:

Hat

Finally, we enjoyed some Green Eggs and Ham:

Green Eggs and Ham

Fun times. Tomorrow, the other Universal park.

Thousand Trails Orlando RV Resort

We stayed at Thousand Trails Orlando RV Resort in Clermont, Florida. (Campground Reviews listing.)

TTO (as it’s commonly called) is the flagship Thousand Trails park, with over a thousand sites.

Dates:

Check in: 2024-01-07
Check out: 2024-01-21
14 nights

Weather:

Mostly cloudy, some rain, mostly drizzle
High temps ranging between 63-80°F, lows around 35-65°F
A little wind, gusts to 38 MPH

Noise:

No road noise
No train noise
Some neighbor noise, dogs and kids
Distant fireworks from Disney some evenings

Site:

#178, back in, asphalt
Needed to disconnect toad, parked beside coach
Rather unlevel, high on right and front; used hydraulic leveling
Asphalt driveway about 50 feet long by about 18 feet wide
Passenger side to next site’s driveway about 10 feet
Driver side to next site’s driveway about 20 feet
No picnic table (but apparently available upon request)
No fire pit
Steep drop-off next to rear of site
Mostly clean site

Utilities:

50 amp power, very inconveniently located; needed to use my extension cord
75 PSI water, inconveniently located
Loose sewer connection, inconveniently located (2 10-foot pipes needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

Starlink: 47 Mbps down, 6-14 Mbps up, 50 ms ping
T-Mobile: 24-30 Mbps down, 0.5 Mbps up, 60 ms ping
AT&T: 1 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 80 ms ping
Verizon: 2 Mbps down, 10 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

Garbage dumpsters only in a central location
Package delivery to office, for $5 per package (we got a local mailbox)

Our review on Campground Reviews:

The flagship Thousand Trails park

It’s good to know what’s what before showing up at TTO. Half the park is older, with rundown pads and a kind of state park feel, and half the park is newer, like a perfectly manicured RV resort. And if you’re used to the usual Thousand Trails “first come first served” rigamarole, you might be confused by how they do things here. I prefer the orderly check-in process with the rangers knowing what sites are available and guiding you to what’s there. This place is so huge, that you’d be crawling the lanes for hours before finding one on your own. I hate having to find a place at other TT parks. Our site was on the “older” side of the park, backed up to some trees, which was nice. There was a bit of a drop-off at the end of our pad, but it was long enough for our 40′ coach, and we were able to park our truck on the grass alongside it. It was kind of downhill in a hollow, so cell reception was not great but Starlink was just fine. We camped at Thousand Trails Orlando RV Resort in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site:

Our site

A rather steep drop-off:

Our site

I needed to use my power extension cord for the first time ever (other than at Mom’s):

Power extension cord

I had fun tossing a ball for this very good boy whenever I went to top up our water tank or dump our waste tanks:

Dog

The nearby bathrooms were closed the entire time, but they had portapotties for the few people who needed them (and I did use one once, as we sanitized our fresh water tank while here):

Bathrooms

There were a few big storms that rolled through; here are a couple of screenshots of one (with a potential tornado southwest of us!):

Storm screenshot

Big checkers board:

Big checkers board

Rec center:

Rec center

Mail info; they charge $5 per package, and suggest alternatives:

Mail info

Group fire pit:

Group fire pit

Mini golf:

Mini golf

Pickleball courts:

Pickleball courts

Boat launch:

Boat launch

Hibiscus flower:

Flower

Tortoise:

Tortoise

Grasshopper:

Grasshopper

A large crane-like bird:

Bird

There were several that roamed the grounds:

Birds

Other sites:

Other sites

Bathrooms

Other sites

One section has buddy sites:

Buddy sites

A massive campground. We’ve already been back again since this, and no doubt will be back more times in the future.

Video

Video: Carrabelle to Clermont, Florida motorhome travel timelapse

A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 283 miles from Carrabelle, Florida to Clermont, Florida, including a picture-in-picture from the 360 camera on the truck being towed behind the coach.

Travel from Carrabelle to Clermont, Florida

We drove our coach 263 miles, about 5 hours of driving, from Carrabelle, Florida to Clermont, Florida. Our first travel day of 2024.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading southeast:

Map route

An interactive map, with possible stops:

We pulled our coach out to toad up:

Toading up

Bye beach:

Bye beach

Look out birds; you can come back to your tasty roadkill after we go by:

Birds

We stopped in front of a gas station for lunch:

Stop in front of gas station

Gas station lunch; not ideal, but not bad:

Lunch

Joining I-75:

I-75

A traffic cam, showing our coach:

Traffic cam

A rest area stop:

Rest area

Joining Florida’s Turnpike toll road:

Florida's Turnpike

The Villages:

The Villages

“Florida’s Turnpike, The Less Stressway” (maybe if they improved the road surface a bit):

Florida's Turnpike

Another traffic cam:

Traffic cam

Toll at the exit; our Freedom Pass transponder worked:

Toll at exit

Citrus Tower:

Citrus Tower

Arriving at our destination, Thousand Trails Orlando:

Thousand Trails Orlando

Normally in Thousand Trails parks you roam around to pick your own site, but TTO is different; they have people guide you to a site. We were directed to this parking lot to await a guide:

Thousand Trails Orlando

Guided to site:

Guided to site

Arriving at our site:

Site

Not ideal, but nice to not have anyone behind us:

Site

Fixing TV lift

One big issue that we got Davidson RV to investigate was that our main TV lift wasn’t going down reliably; it would often stop partway, requiring pressing the down button several times. They investigated, and determined that the lift controller was bad:

TV lift controller

Here’s the TV laying on our bed while they investigated:

They couldn’t get a replacement in time, so as a temporary workaround, they installed a switch to bypass the controller:

TV lift switch

I contacted the manufacturer, Venset in Denmark, and they referred me to their US distributor, Wood Technology.

I emailed Wood Technology, and Mike Fisher replied. We exchanged several very helpful emails, photos, and documents, discussing the issue and solutions. He provided me with a replacement controller:

New controller

The new controller, installed:

New controller

It was super easy to sync our existing remote control to the new controller, then I was able to successfully raise and lower the TV:

Remote

Here’s a peek of the lift mechanism:

Lift mechanism

Another potential issue that Mike discussed was that the curly cord could get tangled, preventing the lift from raising. So he recommended either cutting it out, or detaching the lower portion and rerouting the wire:

Wire

I did the latter, bundling the curly cord with the other wires coming from the TV:

Wire

That should avoid that issue. And we’re very glad that the lift mechanism is working properly again. Much appreciation to Mike at Wood Technology!

Video

Video: sunrise and tide timelapse at Ho-Hum RV Park

A timelapse of the sun rising and tides going in and out from our waterfront site at Ho-Hum RV Park in Carrabelle, Florida.

Carrabelle

We didn’t really do anything during the three weeks we stayed at Ho-Hum RV Park over the holidays. That seems to be fairly typical for us, just taking some downtime to relax. Especially with some very busy times coming up after this (stay tuned!).

Ho-Hum is in a kinda out-of-the-way area, but near a town called Carrabelle (population 2,778). We did go to one restaurant, the post office, and the local grocery store; that was pretty much the limit of our exploring here. There are definitely a few more things to do and see, e.g. we considered going to check out a couple of nearby lighthouses, but we’ll save that for our next visit.

Here’s an interactive map:

Carrabelle

We had lunch at Marine Street Grill:

Marine Street Grill

Pizza

Next to the post office is the world’s smallest police station:

World's smallest police station

The Gulfside IGA Plus grocery store is a little small, but had almost everything we wanted:

Grocery store

(There is a Walmart 45 minutes away, for people who use that as a marker of civilization.)

Clock and memorial:

Clock and memorial

We do enjoy cute little towns, and this is definitely one. We’ll have to make a point of exploring it more when we’re here again.

Ho-Hum RV Park

We stayed at Ho-Hum RV Park in Carrabelle, Florida. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A nice casual RV park, with the gulf literally feet from our front door.

Dates:

Check in: 2023-12-17
Check out: 2024-01-07
21 nights

Weather:

Mostly sunny, some cloud and rain
High temps ranging between 52-67°F, lows around 33-60°F
A little wind, gusts to 42 MPH

Noise:

Highway noise
No train noise
Some neighbor noise, dogs, but few kids

Site:

#48A, pull in, gravel
Needed to disconnect toad, parked behind coach
Rather unlevel, high on left and front; used hydraulic leveling
Gravel site about 50 feet long by about 30 feet wide
Picnic table on gravel
No fire pit
Clean site
Waterfront, facing the water

Utilities:

50 amp power, conveniently located
32 PSI water, conveniently located
Good sewer connection, conveniently located (less than 1 10-foot pipe needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

T-Mobile: 50 Mbps down, 8 Mbps up, 48 ms ping
AT&T: 57 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 60 ms ping
Verizon: 26-42 Mbps down, 26 Mbps up, 160 ms ping
Starlink: not used
Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

Garbage dumpster
Waterfront (gulf)
Package delivery to office

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Nothing ho-hum here

We spent three weeks here over the holidays and loved the laid-back vibe and beachfront views. Watching the birds along the shore right from the window of our motorhome was wonderfully relaxing. There is some road noise from the highway, but it is pretty nonexistent at night. Some of the waterfront sites are a bit sloped and could be problematic for larger rigs, but ours was fine enough that our leveling system could cope. The staff were all friendly and helpful and the amenities were well-kept. We loved our stay so much that we booked our stay for the end of 2024 before we left. We camped at Ho-Hum RV Park in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

Map

An interactive map:

Our waterfront site:

Our site

It’s been ages since I flew my drone, but this seemed a perfect place to get some aerial photos:

Aerial

Now that we’d made it to Florida, it was time to add its sticker to our coach:

Florida sticker

We stayed here over the holidays, so of course we did our 20th annual The Lord of the Rings movie marathon, watching the extended editions of all three movies (though like last year, we split it over two days; not quite as much a marathon, but more relaxed):

The Lord of the Rings

One of the other guests dropped off a little Christmas gift:

Christmas gift

We really enjoyed having the beach right in front of our site:

Beach

A fishing pier:

Beach

Fishing pier

Beach

Water

Waves

Fishing pier

Birds

Bird

Birds

Waves

As you can see, there was quite a difference between low and high tides; I liked to watch the tide charts; fascinating how the two tides (from the moon and sun) merge and split to create single bigger tides or two smaller tides:

Tide charts

Our neighbor moved from a oceanfront site to one further back:

Neighboring site

Other site

Most of the RVs on the oceanfront were motorhomes, fronted in, but there were a few trailers, backed in:

Other sites

I’m glad we didn’t have a trailer next to us, with their door facing ours:

Trailers

Other sites:

Other sites

We’re planning to stay here again for the next holidays; this is the site we’ve already reserved for next time:

Other sites

Beach area:

Beach area

Dog park:

Dog park

Rec room:

Rec room

Entrance and office:

Office

We enjoyed our stay here, and are looking forwarding to returning at the end of the year!

Video

Video: Spanish Fort, Alabama to Carrabelle, Florida motorhome travel timelapse

A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 257 miles from Spanish Fort, Alabama to Carrabelle, Florida, including a picture-in-picture from the 360 camera on the truck being towed behind the coach.

Travel from Spanish Fort, Alabama to Carrabelle, Florida

We drove our coach 257 miles, about 5 hours of driving, from Spanish Fort, Alabama to Carrabelle, Florida. Our last travel day of 2023. (Yes, the blog posts are a bit delayed; we do things faster than I can post about them!)

Here’s a map showing our route, heading east:

Route map