My little sister is OBSESSED with Harry Potter. For reals. Us kids always go over the top with our obsessions, which I think makes life fun. After Blake and I moved back from Hawaii, my mom decided that it would be the perfect time to take the family to Harry Potter World. My mom is an amazing deal finder. So she searched and searched for months to find a good flight that we could get with Delta skymiles. I had a bunch from all of my Hawaii to Utah flights, so when she found our flight we only had to pay $7.50 per ticket. It ended up working out to be a 9 day trip, so we decided to go to Disneyworld as well to fill the rest of the time. My mom found a 5 bedroom house with a private pool that we rented for about $100 a night, which is an insane deal for such a big, nice house.
We were set to leave on Monday the 5th. On the Saturday before that, Blake was working really hard to get our apartments ready to show to a potential buyer and ended up injuring his back pretty bad. It made our flight... interesting. We got to board early with the people who need more time, so that was nice. I am so grateful that our flight there was direct and we didn't have to transfer him. The next two days he stayed at home while we went to the theme parks, and then after that we rented a wheelchair for him until the last day of theme parks when he felt okay enough to walk. He is mostly recovered now and I am so grateful, and more protective of letting him haul things or work too hard.
Our first day of theme parks was spent at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. We couldn't make Peeps wait to see Harry Potter world! We had lots of fun. My favorite rides were Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, Dragon Challenge, and the Jurassic Park River Adventure. Peeps was able to buy a wand like she'd been dreaming of for months. She picked Narcissa Malfoy's wand. When we took pictures with the Hogwarts Express train conductor, he said "Oh great, another Weasley. I get so many of you on my train" or something along those lines. I was tickled pink and wanted to know what he would have said if I had my redheaded husband with me.
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| Butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks! |
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| Honeydukes! |
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| Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey paused for about 5-10 minutes the first time we rode it |
Day 2 was spent at Hollywood Studios DisneyWorld. There wasn't really as much to do there as we were hoping. I did really enjoy the Tower of Terror. It's different than the one in California so that was fun. Peeps enjoyed Toy Story Mania.
Day 3, the first day Blake joined us, was at Epcot. There was a lot to see there. I was a little disappointed that there weren't really any good rides. I did love their aquariums (dolphins!) and seeing the different countries was cool. The Flower and Garden Festival was going on so there were tons of cute Disney-shaped topiaries and beautiful flowers everywhere.
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| Aaron attracts crowds of fans with his yoyo tricks |
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| Amanda Pandas |
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The 4th day was my favorite of the Disney parks we visited, Animal Kingdom. We started the day out with a safari where we got to see so many different animals. It was great. There was a dinosaur land that was kinda fun. We LOVED the roller coaster Expedition Everest. It is probably the funnest coaster I've been on.
Day 5 was spent at Universal Studios. I loved visiting MIB headquarters, exploring Springfield, and escaping the Mummy. The Horror Makeup Show was really great... and a little disturbing. Haha. They did have a lot of 3D rides which we got sick of real fast. The Disaster ride was pretty cool. They picked out actors from the group of people riding and had them act out parts. Then they put everyone on a subway train for the ride part and made it feel like an earthquake. At the end, they showed you a movie trailer with the footage they got from your group.
On Day 6 we stayed at home and relaxed. We spent hours in the pool (which we did every night after the parks as well.)
Our last day of fun was spent in the same place we started, Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. This time we went on all of the water rides and got SOAKED. We visited all of our favorite rides again. The first and last ride of the day was Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, which had broken on us the first day. The last time we rode it, it broke down on us again. But this time, it didn't start back up in a few minutes. We were stuck there for an hour and they had to evacuate us one car at a time inside the ride. I think that they should work on fixing the rides they have before they start opening more like they're planning on later this year.
We loved our trip! I think Blake was happy he didn't have to go on very many rides haha. I don't think we'll be going back to Florida in the foreseeable future though. I like Disneyland better than DisneyWorld because it seems like they just stretched everything out in Florida to make you pay for more parks. And with them starting construction on a Harry Potter park in the Universal Studios California, soon we'll be able to visit that in Cali as well. I'm so glad we got to go to Florida once though. It wasn't too hot or humid and didn't rain at all. Having our own pool was so amazing. I am so grateful to my parents for bringing us along on a super fun trip!
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