Universal Studios

  Universal Studios was the first park on our trip.  Paul had done the research and it worked out that historically crowd-wise, the first 2 days of the trip would be better suited for Universal Studios with Disney World next.  That was fine with Drew and I!  Universal Studios, more specifically The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, was our favorite part of the trip.  As huge Harry Potter fans (I've read the series 8 times, Drew is almost done with her 2nd time) we were absolutely in awe of the place.  It was as if we were transported to the "real" Hogwarts, Hogsmead, and Diagon Alley.  It was so perfect!  It was everything a HP fan could ever dream of.  We were in heaven as we sipped our frozen Butterbeer on the streets of Hogsmead.  Not so much with the pumpkin juice though, that was some weird stuff.  Let me backtrack a second and say that we stayed at a Universal hotel, the Cabana Bay Beach Resort, so we were able to get early entrance passes to the Islands of Adventure half of the park both mornings.  Which was perfect because that meant Hogwarts and the best ride of all, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.  It started in the Hogwarts castle so each morning we got in line early and then "rope-dropped" so we could get to Hogwarts and get on the ride without having to wait an hour in line.  It was so worth it.  I was up at 6am pretty much the entire vacation.  That's how we do it, no sleeping in or resting when we are on vacation!  So both mornings we raced to ride the Forbidden Journey.  It was so good.  Bree was too short to ride, and Darcy was too scared to ride, but US has a great child-swap deal so Paul and I were able to do all the rides the kids didn't want to do with minimal waiting time.  Drew and Mason were also able to go again with the next parent so they doubled up on a few rides.  I guess that was their payment for not being able to use the stroller like Bree and Darcy.  We rented a double stroller from a service in Orlando and it was such a blessing.  Not only did it hold all our souvenirs, but it held Bree and Darcy almost 100% of the time.  That wasn't the original plan but when you are racing hundreds of other people to be at the front of the line, waiting for little legs to catch up just won't do.  Paul used that stroller to blaze a trail through stragglers and get us through quickly.  The rest of us just followed along behind as he parted the crowds for us.  Drew and Mason complained daily about how unfair it was for the girls to get to ride but I'd rather walk than have to stare at a bunch of strangers' butts all day.

 

  Hogsmead is where Drew purchased most of her souvenirs.  She bought an interactive wand where she could use it at certain spots to perform magic.  She had to say the right incantation and flick of the wand to make magic happen.  It worked!  Mason also got a wand, the Elder wand, the most powerful wand in the wizarding world.  Go big or go home, huh Mase?!  We rode Flight of the Hippogriff twice which was a Bree sized roller coaster, I rode the Dragon Challenge which is a roller coaster where your legs are free and you're held in your seat by a chest harness.  It was awesome.  My kids tried to convince me not to do it but those are my favorite rides.  We hung out in Hogsmead for quite a while the first day and then explored the rest of Islands of Adventure. 

  Universal Studio's rides are more intense than Disney World's so Drew, Mason, and I appreciated them more I think.  Lots of them were motion simulation rides where you really didn't go anywhere but you were wearing 3-D glasses which made you feel like you were a part of the action and your seat was moving around even though you weren't really going far. That being said, we went on the Jurassic Park ride which was actually moving with a big water drop at the end.  That was a really good one and the water felt good because it was so blasting hot there.  A week before Thanksgiving and it was in the high 80's!  Pretty much miserable with all that humidity too.  We did one ride in Dr Seuss Landing but it was so wussy we moved on to a different part of the park.  We rode on the Spiderman ride which was one of the 3-D rides.  It was pretty good.  We also did Poseidon's Fury, where Bree bawled the entire time.  She was such a trooper.  We kept dragging her on rides, telling her it wasn't going to be scary, then she would freak and out and be bawling at the end, and then believe me the next time I told her the ride we were going on wasn't going to be scary.  What a terrible mom, I know, but I wanted her to experience it all!  Only a couple of the rides turned out to be horrible for her.  That's a number I can live with!  Drew, Mason, Paul, and Darcy rode a couple of really wet rides while Bree and I just watched and stayed dry.  They got completely soaked on Popeye and Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges.  Even their shoes were soaked and we had quite the time trying to dry them before the next morning.

 

  That afternoon we rode the Hogwarts's Express from Hogsmead to Diagon Alley.  Heaven again!  It was so cool to see Gringott's bank and the Weasley's joke shop.  It was just so much fun to be there.  We kind of hung out and explored, walked the streets and shops, went back out into "London" where we found Stan Shunpike and the Knight Bus, and Drew tried calling the Ministry of Magic from the phone booth.  Unfortunately they told her they weren't accepting visitors at that time.  The whole place was perfect.  So much fun!  And did I mention how much we loved the butterbeer?  So, so good!  I think we bought 4 of them over both days.  Expensive but worth it!  We went back to the hotel after that and got in the one and only swim of the entire trip.  We didn't have any sort of meal plan for US so we ate once in the park and then had KFC on the way back to the hotel.  I had Mason's OSU string backpack full of Goldfish snacks, among other things  on my back the entire trip so I don't think we ever starved at US but we didn't eat like we did at DW!  More on that later.

  The second day, Thursday, Nov 12th, we rope-dropped again and rode the Hogwarts ride.  We rode the Hogwarts Express back over to Diagon Alley and rode the Escape From Gringotts.  That was one of those 3-D rides too.  It was pretty good.  Even Bree had fun I think.  It was so hard to leave the Harry Potter World without spending a billion galleons, though Drew came pretty close I think.
  We explored the rest of Universal Studios where we found some pretty good rides, and some stinkers.  Like the Shrek thing.  Skip it if you ever go.  Also the Minions ride had a long wait and it wasn't all that awesome either.  I think our longest wait at US was to get on the Transformers ride.  That one was really good.  Another 3-D but it was awesome.  We also rode the Simpsons, Men in Black, E.T., and Paul and I did the child swap on the Mummy ride.  None of the kids were brave enough to try it.  The ride was fun but the special effects were a bit scary.  We also saw a short show of how they create the horror movies with lots of blood and guts and monsters.  Perfect for little kids.  Or not.  Luckily it wasn't too graphic I guess.  We totally enjoyed Universal Studios.  It was hard to say goodbye to Harry Potter world.  I'm pretty sure Drew was dreaming of it the entire time we were at Disney World.  I would go back there in a heartbeat.  That night we moved ourselves over to our Hotel at Disney World to start a new adventure there the next day.  The little girls were so excited!  But I'll leave that for my next post.