We spent our second amusement park day at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. It was still really cold, and it was very crowded, especially at the Harry Potter portions of the parks, and we got off to a pretty rocky start. The first ride we tried to get on was Harry Potter's Escape from Gringotts but even though we went straight there, the wait was already 3 hours long. That threw us off and we struggled a little bit after that. We stumbled upon a really short line at Transformers, so we did that, and that was really fun, then we kind of just moseyed along watching a parade and finding short lines at ET and Woody Woodpecker's roller coaster. We were also lucky to get on to the Mummy ride easily because of the accommodations they offered for Grammy's handicap. We took the kids to the Dr. Seuss area and rode on One Fish, Two Fish a couple of times. And things picked up at the end of the day when we were able to get on two Harry Potter Rides: Flight of the Hippogriff and The Forbidden Journey. We ended with Jimmy Fallon's Race Through New York before picking up Chick-fil-A party trays for a late dinner with the group back at the resort. This was our earliest night, leaving the park at about 7:30 (at least partly because I had to be up early the next morning for my half marathon).
HARRY POTTER STUFF:
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Cat's selfies, etc., from The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. She was ridiculously excited about all of it,
and loved all the little details. She could hardly believe she got to take a picture at 12 Grimmauld Place.
Anyone know why that address is significant? I didn't... |
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| Butterbeer in Hogsmeade |
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| Jack was also really excited about all of the HP stuff, including the Knight Bus. |
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| Upon entering Diagon Alley |
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| The t(w)eenagers hanging out at the Leaky Cauldron. |
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| Ollivander's! Finally! |
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Jack decided to buy an authentic Harry Potter wand.
Almost two weeks later, he still loves it and plays with it, when he can find it. |
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| Gringott's |
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After a disappointing morning, I was incredibly sad that the line was so long at The Three Broomsticks
that we couldn't have lunch there. So we spent way too much money on treats at Honeydukes to make up for it.
Jack chose a chocolate frog, Eliza chose Every Flavor Beans, and Luke bought Fudge Flies. |
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| Turns out, the chocolate frog was solid chocolate, which made it difficult even for Jack to eat. |
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Using some kind of projector and mirror, it actually looked like
you were walking through a wall when you entered the platform for
The Hogwarts Express. Very cool. |
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Everyone was excited about this particular experience and we were able to go on the train together,
again, thanks to Grammy's handicap. At least it comes in handy once in a while. |
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| Thrilled. |
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| Even more thrilled, if possible. |
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| Probably slightly less thrilled, but still excited about riding on a magic train. |
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The bottom half of the Hogwarts Castle is behind us.
Take my word for it. |
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| Hagrid's cottage was located just above the line for the Flight of the Hippogriff |
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| Ready for Flight of the Hippogriff! |
ALL THE OTHER STUFF:
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| Amy and I took the little boys on Transformers first, before the rest of the group joined us. |
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| Luke got to go on it twice! |
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| Then we met Optimus Prime. He's really tall. |
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| Just wheelin' little Sawyer around... |
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| We felt it important to prepare for ET appropriately. |
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| ET! |
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The lines were too long on the Jurassic Park rides, but at least there
were still a few dinosaurs to be seen as we walked around. |
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Cat and the rest of the t(w)eenagers had a lot of time on their own on this day,
and rode several rides the rest of us didn't ride. I think this was Men in Black. |
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| Down time at a play area. |
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| Leaving the Woody Woodpecker roller coaster. |
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| Going into the Mummy. |
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Cat rode this before us and warned us that it was too scary for
Jack and the younger kids, so we child-swapped them.
Eliza never forgave us that she didn't get to go on the Mummy. |
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| I love that these two cute girls had so much fun together! |
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| One Fish, Two Fish |
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| View from the fish. |
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| Waiting in line for Round 2. |
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| We met Hashtag the Panda while we were waiting for Jimmy Fallon's ride. |
Wow!!!!
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