Florida Vacation Day 5

Universal Studios

After four fabulous days at Disney parks, it was time to move to new adventures during our time in Florida.  Our first adventure was the highly anticipated trip to Universal Studios and everything Harry Potter.   Our whole family loves Harry Potter so I was really excited to be able to spend the day exploring The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (and a few other non-HP stops too).  A tip for anyone heading out to Universal who plans to buy an interactive wand for Diagon Alley and/or Hogsmeade....buy one at the main gift shop when you enter Universal.   They had a huge selection of character and non-character wands as well as regular and interactive.   Saved us a huge amount of time not having to stand in line once in The Wizarding Worlds.

Before we got Diagon Alley, we made a few stops for rides and lunch in the main Universal Park.  Our first stop, with hundreds of other people, was the Minion Mayhem ride.   I believe that our wait was about an hour.  Even the people who paid for the express passes had a long wait.  It was such a fun simulated ride.   We all enjoyed it! 

While we were waiting, Matt was watching a crazy rollercoaster (Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit) behind Minions and I could tell he REALLY wanted to ride it.  Watching it I also knew there was NO WAY the kids were going to ride it and I would have considered if we didn't have the kids with us but since that wasn't the case I didn't give it too much thought.   After Minions we decided to split up.  He was going to do single rider on the Rip Ride Rockit and I would take the kids to Shrek 4D.  The wait lines were comparable and this way he be able to get his fix of a true thrill ride.  The kids and I really enjoyed Shrek 4D and even got cooled off water misting fans while we waited.

Kids practicing spells with their wands while we waited for Matt to finish his ride.

AHH - JAWS!

After a quick lunch, we headed out to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.   We bought the park hopper passes so we were able to ride the train between Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade.

We started our adventure at Diagon Alley.

The Knight Bus

Entering Diagon Alley!

There were stop points all over where you could perform spells if you had an interactive wand.   It was not easy but with practice and the help of staff the kids eventually got the hang of it.

 Matt & Maxwell rode on Escape from Gringotts...Kaylee got too nervous and wanted to skip it.  I am disappointed that I didn't get to ride it and looking back we should have insisted she go. 

 

So much heat came off of the dragon's fire.

Wee!!!   Enjoying some Butterbeer while we ride!

ALL ABOARD the Hogwart's Express to Hogsmeade

Platform nine and three-quarters!

Hogsmeade in the winter!

While in Hogsmeade the kids were able to do more spells, we ate supper at Three Broomsticks, and rode on the Flight of the Hippogriff.  Unfortunately, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey was closed when we got there.  No idea why but we were all bummed out. 

We spent so much time just exploring and taking in all of the sites of both Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade.   It was a lot of fun!  As a family, we just started watching (for the 100th time at least) the Harry Potter movies and its been fun comparing the movie to the sites we saw on vacation.

Universal Studios wasn't complete with other stops:
  We went to a live action show of famous animal actors - Kaylee's request! 

 

The Simpson's

Back to the Future

Men in Black

It was another marathon day at a theme park.  Full of fun, food & drinks, and a few meltdowns.  We were all exhausted and opted to skip any night firework type shows.  
Instead we enjoyed a movie night in the room!