Jennifer had wanted to go to see Harry Potter World ever since it had opened. We had been in talks of going about three and a half years ago, but found out that Jennifer was pregnant with Brinley. We didn't think that a trip to an amusement park would be very much fun if Jennifer wasn't able to ride all the attractions. So, last year I got the crazy idea to go to Disney World with the kids and I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to take Jennifer to Universal Studios, to see Harry Potter World. We packed up the kids and headed to Florida right after the Superbowl ended. Driving through the night is hard, but it is so much better to travel when the kids are sleeping. We stopped at a McDonald's for breakfast and because of a promotion that was going on, we were able to pay for our meal with some lovin'. So, Jennifer and I just had to give the kids some kisses in order to pay for our breakfast. What a great way to start off our vacation! We arrived to our condo before the check-in time so we did a little exploring around the area. The kids tried to run off some of their energy on the playground while waiting for our room to be cleaned. After hauling in the entire car full of luggage the kids and I decided to try out the pool.
Grandma and Grandpa arrived later that night and after helping them unpack their luggage we decided to head out to dinner. We were driving around looking at all the options when we spotted the best restaurant ever, Giordano's! This a Chicago based deep dish pizza and Italian restaurant that is amazing. While we were waiting for our dinner they had a guy that came around and made balloon animals and characters for children. We asked for some Minnie ears for Brinley and an Olaf for Landon. He was very entertaining and told some jokes while making his creations. The kids loved it and Grandpa even told him that he needed to try out for America's Got Talent!
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| The kids with their balloons! |
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| Well worth the 45 + minute wait! |
We got back to our condo and tried to get as much sleep as possible before starting our nine day amusement park adventure. The next 3 days were going to be spent in Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. Our real reason for going to these parks were because of the Harry Potter World they added about 4 or 5 years ago.
February 3rd
This morning we got up really early and ate breakfast in the condo before heading out to Universal Studios. We left extremely early because we were unsure of how bad morning traffic would be and we didn't want to be late getting to the park. We made it to the park with plenty of time to spare so we took our time getting everything packed up into the stroller. We stopped out front for a photo or two before heading in!
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| Glad I could finally take my lovely wife to Harry Potter World! |
Upon entering the park we immediately made our way to the back to begin our adventure in Harry Potter World. We entered through the bricks and immediately stepped into Diagon Alley. It was amazing to see the books come to life. The movies did an amazing job, but it was just really cool to see it all first hand. Before we could take in all the sights, we dashed into Gringott's bank to try and beat the line before it got too long. We made it to the front of the line and then were directed to the child swap room because the kids weren't big enough to ride. Grandma and Grandpa decided to watch the kids first while we rode. Of course the ride was having some malfunctions to start with and we ended up waiting about 20 minutes for it to get fixed. The kids were getting a little stir crazy and were running all over the place, but they calmed down when we pulled out the magic treat - Cheetos! The kids calmed down about the time it was for us to ride. We escaped Gringott's and then it was time for Grandma and Grandpa to ride. Thankfully we figured out early on the advantages of child swap and I told Jennifer to go ahead and ride it again because we didn't know what the line situation would be later.
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| Outside Gringott's Bank with the fire breathing dragon on top. |
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| Grandma, Grandpa, and Landon with Popeye and Olive Oyl |
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| My thoughts on the 1st day of 9 at theme parks. |
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| Grandma and Grandpa rode Jurrasic Park River Adventure while Brinley and I rode the Pteranodon Flyers. Landon and Jennifer played at another playground. This was the most terrified that I was during the entire trip. The Pteranodon Flyer was a two person ride in which each person was in their own chair. They only had seat belts across your waist which made me absolutely terrified. I have seen this Houdini (Brinley) get out of much more secure devices and this just didn't seem safe enough. Against my better judgement I went ahead and got on. Brinley absolutely loved it! Below is a picture of the ride (it is not us) to show exactly what the ride looked like. |
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| We made our way back around to Hogsmead and eventually back up to Hogwarts. Since the line was so short we decided to go ahead and ride now instead of rushing to the back of the park the next day to beat the rush. The inside of the castle was really cool. It housed a lot of memorabilia from the movies, like the sorting hat. Jennifer and I rode first while Grandma and Grandpa watched the kids. Then Grandpa and I decided to go for a ride. It was a pretty neat experience and was about the closest I will ever get to flying a broomstick. |
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| Jennifer and I with Hogwarts Castle in the background. |
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| The Heflin's with a conductor of the Hogwarts Express. I actually didn't want him in the picture, but I asked him if he could take our picture and he told me that he wasn't trained in muggle devices and couldn't help me. I found a muggle to snap one for me. Too bad the muggle I stopped didn't get the train in the picture. |
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| My riding buddy! I am so blessed to have this little girl. She has no fear at all in this world. Especially when she is with her daddy. Everytime we got in our seats she would say "Daddy hold my hand!" I just hope that she always loves me as much as she does now! |
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| We even got Grandma and Grandpa on Flight of the Hippogriff with us! |
The park closed at 7 so we stayed until it closed. We grabbed dinner at Texas Roadhouse before heading back to the condo. We picked the roadhouse because it was one of the few places that I knew had TVs and I could maybe catch the end of the UK basketball game, which we did. It was a great first day and we all slept well because we were worn out.
February 4th
We left a little later today because we knew the traffic wasn't that bad. We again arrived before the park opened and stopped for another picture.
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| Landon didn't really seem interested in a family photo. |
As soon as we entered the park, we went straight into the Despicable Me line. This was a motion 4-D ride and video with the minions from Despicable Me. The kids were not tall enough to ride in one of the motorized seats, but they could sit up front in the handicap sections and enjoy the 3-D show. Grandma and Grandpa rode and we sat up front with the kids. The kids loved it, so we switched positions and rode again. After we got out of the ride I noticed some characters that were out taking pictures with people.
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| I was most excited to meet Bart and Lisa Simpson. The kids were more excited about Curious George. A brief sign of hope was that Brinley actually gave a few of the characters high fives. Maybe she was going to like them after all. She just needed a day or two to get accustomed. |
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| Grandma and Grandpa with Woody Woodpecker. |
After meeting the characters, we headed into see another 4-D show, Shrek. The kids also really enjoyed this show too. I didn't really care too much about having a donkey sneeze on us, but otherwise it was pretty cool.
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| We just happened to be walking out the doors of Shrek when we spotted Optimus Prime. The kids really didn't know who he was, but I was pretty impressed. He actually talked to us. He was just a little smaller than the real one. All the adults got to ride the new Transformers ride before heading over to E.T. |
Brinley has never seen the movie E.T., but since she met the height requirement we decided to let her ride. Landon wasn't tall enough so I hung back with him. They were taking forever and I didn't know if they knew where Landon and I were waiting so I went out to find them. I searched and didn't find them at the stroller, so I went in the exit. I met them as they got off the ride and they said that it had broken down prior to them getting on the ride. They said Brinley didn't really like it, but she was in the back row and couldn't really see well. I decided that I would take her and see if we could sit up front. We did and she loved it! She mostly loved that at the end of the ride it thanks all the people who helped E.T. get home. E.T. called out her name and she thought it was the greatest thing ever!
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| Her new buddy E.T. |
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| We found a little playground that was modeled after Fievel Goes West. This was a huge ball pit and the kids both got in it. The problem was that Landon wasn't tall enough to get out. So that is Jennifer stretched out pulling him back out. I am pretty sure that he could have stayed and played in there all day. |
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| They even had a water slide. Jennifer and Brinley went first and I waited at the top with Landon. When we were cleared for takeoff and right before she pushed the button to let us go Landon had a full out temper tantrum and wouldn't hold onto the side straps. The attendant wouldn't let us go even if I held him tight. So, we had to take a walk of shame back down the stairs. Come to find out they had a video at the bottom so that parents could see their kids so the whole family got to see the tantrum. |
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| We found Brinley's second roller coaster - Woody Woodpecker. Again she loved it! We rode it 4 times in a row! |
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| After riding Woody we decided to try and catch a show. It was an animal extravaganza. It was a show that had a bunch of famous animal actors in it. I was actually selected out of the crowd to be a participant. The bird from Ace Ventura flew to me and landed on my arm and picked up a dollar bill out of my hand and then flew back to the trainer. She said thanks for the money and then went on with the show. A few minutes later she had the bird return with my money and put it back in my hand. It was pretty cool. We also got to see the dog from Beethoven, the dog from Men in Black, and the dog from Marley and Me as well as many other animals. |
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After the show we grabbed lunch at Moe's Bar - from the Simpson's. Next we took a ride on the Hurl-n-Twirl. Grandma and Brinley rode together and Grandpa and Landon rode together.
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| Next we headed over to the Men In Black Attack ride. This is a shooting game where you compete against the five other people that are in your cart with you. Jennifer and I rode together and I beat her. Due to where the child swap location was we actually just took a few turns each going back and riding in the single rider line. My high score was 412,675. About 5 years ago when we went to Universal Studios this was our favorite ride. We rode it about 10 times in a row one night. The kids started to get a little fussy so we left and headed for Diagon Alley. Brinley and Landon were both upset, so I got them an icee which made both of them pretty happy, as least for the moment. |
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| Back to London and Diagon Alley. I have such a beautiful wife and she did such an amazing job with all the planning of our week and a half long vacation. On top of that she also made about half of our outfits so that we could match during our trip. She definitely deserved her daily allotment of Butterbeer. |
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| We let the ladies ride the Escape from Gringotts ride again which meant that we were in charge of the kids. This was easier said than done. They both ran wild all throughout Diagon Alley. Grandpa and Brinley did stop for a quick picture in Hagrid's motorcycle. |
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| While waiting for the women to get out of Gringott's Bank Brinley started throwing a huge temper tantrum. There was nothing that could be done to calm her down and I knew that a nap was what she truly needed. She was screaming in my ear for about 20 minutes. I know that she gets her hard headedness from me, but when it comes to things like this I just have to win myself. As hard as she fought I knew that I was going to win. Pictured above is my success. She slept while Grandma and Grandpa rode Disaster. |
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| We once again hopped on the Hogwarts Express and rode to Hogsmead since the park Islands of Adventure stayed open later. I just love it when the kids ride on my shoulders. It's something that I will continue to do as long as they will get up there. |
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| Hogwarts at night. We stopped on the way out at a magic show. Here mom was asked to be a participant. The guy correctly picked her card out of a deck of cards. The kids were pretty entertained my the magician. |
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| After dinner we stopped for dessert at a place shaped like an ice cream cone. Both kids were so excited because they got their own cone. We did Facetime with Aunt Andrea while we were eating our ice cream. |
February 5th
Today started out really early for Jennifer and I. Part of getting to stay in the condo for next to nothing was because we had to attend a presentation on becoming a time share owner. This proved to be quite the experience. Jennifer had told me early on that under no circumstances were we to buy a time share. Carlos was the man giving us the presentation and he did not go about things the right way with me. He at one point called me a bad father and another time called me a horrible husband for making my wife come to this presentation against her will. Needless to say he did not sell us anything and I will never sign us up to do that again. After our harassment we loaded up the car and drove in the pouring down rain to the park. This time we decided to head to Islands of Adventure first so that we could ride the Hogwarts express the other way to see if anything was different. This morning proved to be an interesting one. As we were making the last few turns to get into the parking structure Landon started puking all over himself and the car seat. The only good thing about this was he was still in his pajamas so we had an outfit for him to wear. We prayed that it was just a one time incident and got everything together to head in.
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| Right after this picture was taken we discovered that in all the chaos of Landon puking and the clean up that we forgot to pick up his shoes. So I high tailed it back to the car to get him some shoes. |
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| We started off at the front of the park and decided to work our way back to Harry Potter World. We decided to ride the One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish ride a few more times. The only problem was that apparently it was too cold the previous days so we hadn't been getting the full experience. There was supposed to be water that sprayed you during the ride. None of us were fans of this feature. |
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| My little mini me. We tried to stay dry but that was hard to do. |
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| Next was a couple rounds on the Caro-Suess-al. I don't know why all kiddie rides have to go in continuous circles. It gets old! |
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| While looking for a souvenir for Landon we ran into our friends the Cat in the Hat and Thing 1 and Thing 2. They were really friendly and kinda helped warm Brinley up for the next few days. She ended up giving them all high fives and even a little hug or two. |
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| Landon didn't seem as thrilled about the encounters. |
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| After lunch we headed over to Posieden's Fury. While waiting in line Landon got sleepy and I decided it was best to maybe skip the ride. They pointed me in the direction of an exit door and said to follow the arrows. I pretty much had a backstage self guided tour on my walk out to the front. |
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| We headed back to Hogwarts Castle and took the regular line instead of the child swap line so that we could see more movie memorabilia. Here is the infamous sorting hat. |
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| A trip to Harry Potter World wouldn't have been complete without about 5 more rides on the Flight of the Hippogriff. Brinley and I even held out a couple times for the front seat. |
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| Picture of Hogwarts Castle from the top point of Flight of the Hippogriff. Good view of the castle. |
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| My two favorite girls! Brinley had so much fun on this roller coaster. |
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| We saw some of the people that were trying to compete in the Tri-Wizard Tournament. |
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| If you want a picture done right you just have to ask somebody you know. Mom was finally able to take a picture that included the entire train so that you could see it said Hogwarts Express. |
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| We even caught the group of singing toads. Brinley enjoyed them. They were an acapella group similar to Pentatonix. |
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| We headed back to Diagon Alley for one last Butterbeer. I am not sure that she could have been any happier. |
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| Landon and Grandma enjoying the sights, sounds and magic of Diagon Alley. |
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| Brinley and Landon enjoyed the musical entertainment that would come out at different times and sing a few songs. |
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| No trip to Universal would be complete without a picture with Jaws. I was sad that they no longer have the Jaws ride. |
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| Our night ended with one last roller coaster. We rode the Rip Ride Rockit twice in a row before the park closed for the night. This was by far my favorite ride. It was a longer roller coaster and you actually got to choose a song that you wanted to listen to during the ride. The first time I listened to Insane in the Membrane by Cypress Hill and the second time I listened to Happy by Pharrell. I just wish that we had rode during the day because they actually record you during the ride. I can only imagine what I looked like because I was rocking out during both rides! |
Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure proved to be a lot of fun and even though they didn't have a whole lot for Brinley and Landon I think that they both had a lot of fun. Maybe it will be somewhere that we have to return to once they get a little older and taller. We did so much in our first three days of parks that it was hard to imagine that we would be spending the next six days at Disney parks. How were we ever going to make it? Thanks for reading and God Bless!
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