To Hogwarts we go---The Hat Returns

[samheatherwhite]

Hi everyone. I am starting my 3rd Universal TR. I was going to write a PTR but May got away from me with all of the kid's school stuff/activities so we will just jump right in.

I'll start with the basics.
Who: This trip it is going to just be my immediate family along for the ride.
DH, a cowboy and volunteer fireman who has learned to enjoy theme park vacations. He had never flown or ridden a roller coaster until my family introduced him to fun action packed trips. He is not as brave as I am (he would not ride RRR with me last November) but likes most rides. He will eat just about anything and is always a good sport. (which translates to he doesn't like to plan so he just turns me lose and goes along for the ride, which suits me perfectly!) His favorite ride is The Mummy.
Me, a sahm who likes to plan trips and has to keep busy. If you aren't tired after your trip then you must have missed out! I like all kinds of rides but my favorite one is FJ.
DD8,G, is a daredevil, thrill ride junky. She is so excited to be tall enough to ride everything this trip. She is an avid reader and is obsessed with all things Harry Potter and Jurassic Park. She just finished 2nd grade and is currently reading the 5th HP book. She is not picky at all and has the appetite of a child that has outgrown everything she owns this year....twice!
DS4,B, is not a brave guy. He is cautious and hates surprises. It was funny to me what he was afraid of and what didn't worry him at all. He loves dinosaurs, JP, and the Lion Guard. He is a picky eater but I am happy to say that he is starting to branch out. He eats like a bird. He will start pre-k in the fall. His favorite ride was the One Fish, Two Fish ride. He also loves anything where you can get wet.

When: We flew to Orlando from Amarillo, Texas, on Saturday, June, 4th and flew out very early on Saturday, June11th.

Where: We stayed at Cabana Bay the whole trip and spent most of our time at the parks. We did take a bus trip to Clearwater Beach and made a visit to the aquarium to see Winter the dolphin.

I'll end here with a picture of the kids the morning we left.

 

[schumigirl]

Yay......a new trip report!

Looking forward to reading about what you did this trip........kids look cute in that picture!

 

[samheatherwhite]

Sorry for the delay. My computer is trying to croak so I had to take it in. I will update as soon as I can.

 

[schumigirl]

Sorry for the delay. My computer is trying to croak so I had to take it in. I will update as soon as I can.

Oh no.........hope it gets sorted.........

We'll still be here waiting.......patiently..........

 

[samheatherwhite]

We started our trip on Saturday, June 4th. We had an 11am flight out of Amarillo airport. We had a drive of about an hour and forty five minutes, and I am one of those always early type travelers ,so we left our house before 8am.
Amarillo is a very small airport so we were literally the only people in the entire security area when we went through. Needless to say we were way early and the kids got bored waiting to take off.
Flight was to Dallas and it only takes about 50 minutes so we were soon there and hurrying to our connecting flight to Orlando.
We had a very small window to grab lunch so we ended up with some yucky airport food to go.
The flight to Orlando went perfectly also and soon we were off to pick up our luggage.
Our weather had been cool and somewhat wet (for us anyways) so the humid Florida hit us like a brick! We didn't mind though and we soon met up with our ride to Cabana Bay.
We have used Tony Hind's 3 times and now and I cannot recommend his services enough. He is always on time and 100% reliable. He also allows a grocery stop at a really nice Publix store near Universal property. We don't have that brand of store in our area but we really like it.
We don't need much but quickly grabbed a big case of water, a few breakfast snacks, and B wanted a small pail and shovel to play with in the sand. He also spied some Finding Dory cupcakes from the bakery area that he insisted that we needed.

In no time flat we were checking in at the hotel. Check in was seamless. The lady at the front was efficient and very friendly. She and G shared the same name so they chatted for a bit.
I had requested a room as near the lobby as possible and we had a poolside view.
We ended up on the 5th floor right in the middle of the world longest hallways!
I cannot imagine the walk if you had one of the farthest rooms. I counted my steps one trip and it was 166 steps from our room (#5552). The picture above is the kids standing near the window. We were in the Americana building and had a nice view of the lazy river.
We quickly got settled and headed down to the Bayliner Diner for a quick supper and some pool time.
To help clarify our timing, we are early to bed early rise folks. Early entry is never a problem for my guys. B never sleeps and is always up before 7am.

B got a children's grilled cheese. It came with apple slices, baby carrots, and a bottle of water. He is an expert in grilled cheeses as they are his very favorite. He liked this and he and G ate all of the sides.

Sam got an adults grilled cheese that had brisket in it. He really liked this and the kettle style chips that came with it.

G and I shared the margarita pizza. It was really good and hot and fresh. It had 8 slices and even sharing we could left 2 pieces. G and I shared a lot of meals so that we could try different snacks this trip.
We also bought two of the CBBR refill cups for the length of stay. They were about 18$ each and they worked out very well for us. Especially since Icees were included. B loves Icees and drank at least one every day. We filled them up every morning on the way out and then put them in our bag. We used them at the Coke Freestyle machines in the park where we easily filled them up with ice and water which tasted fine. When we got back to the hotel we always filled them up on the way to the rooms as well. I fell that they were a really good deal for my family.

The kids loved the atmosphere in the diner and were soon ready for some pool time.

The kids had to have a picture with a palm tree first thing!

 

[cam757]

Love trip reports. Looking forward to reading along.

 

[schumigirl]

That is a good start!!

Pics are lovely, glad you were happy with your room and you had a nice view.

My son adores grilled cheese sandwiches too........it's a staple!!!

 

[samheatherwhite]

We tried out both the pool and the lazy river before heading back to the room to get cleaned up and ready for bed. Before I got into the pool I went down to the Lobby to get the kid's tickets and the tickets for our character breakfast later in the week. It was super easy and didn't take but about 5 minutes total.

Here is a nice shot of the construction progress of Volcano Bay, as of June, 4th. B really enjoyed watching the cranes work while we were there.
After a quick bath the kids were hungry again after their swim. They tried out the Nemo cupcakes from Publix.

They both liked them and I imagine that they were pretty good since B ate more than just the icing.
After their snack and a quick round of teeth brushing we put the munchkins to bed. Our morning plans involved some hustle since we wanted to be near the front for EE which was at IOA the whole week we were there. Regular park opening was 9am so we knew that we would have no trouble being ready at about 7:20.
The kids had a great time choosing a wake-up call character every morning. We only needed it once the whole week but we set one very day for fun. The first day we had to go with Transformers. We have kind of a running joke where as we are gathering our things on the way out the door I tell the kids, "Autobots, roll out!" The enjoyed hearing Optimus Prime saying the same thing.

The kids both wanted to wear their lanyards which lasted all of about 2 hours which was what I figured.
We snacked in the room for breakfast and headed out at bout 7:15.

A bus was waiting and soon we were at Citywalk. We didn't want to rush since we had plenty of time so the kids let us take a few fun pics.

Here is a construction of the new Toothsome Chocolate Restaurant. I can't wait to try that one. It sounds unique and delicious!

It was a little too bright for good photos.

We had pretty good spots for EE in line and it didn't take long to head straight to Hogsmead. G our resident HP obsessed child was so excited.

They would not stop for a good pic. B is too short for FJ and Sam doesn't love it so they headed to ride FOTH. B really likes Buckbeak. FJ is my favorite ride of all time and a perfect way to start off our park day. We pretty much slow walked all the way to the ride which went down when we were 3 people from loading! Luckily it was back working in about 5 minutes. The ride workers were really funny and kept the crowd engaged while the ride was fixed. After our ride we met back up. B said he enjoyed his big boy coaster but didn't want to do it again. G had been waiting to ride Dragon Challenge since our last visit when she was just a tad too short. She and Sam went that way while B and I shopped around. I bought a Ravenclaw string backpack so we could split up our stuff easier and we met back up very quickly. DC had a 5 minutes wait.
G loved it and it soon became her favorite ride in the park.

 

[schumigirl]

Lovely update!!

Pics are great and I love that your daughter enjoyed Duelling Dragons.........one of our favourite rides in the parks!!

Nice you had such a view of Volcano Bay........looks to be an amazing place.......

So nice to see you all having such a lovely time!

 

[samheatherwhite]

Lovely update!!

Pics are great and I love that your daughter enjoyed Duelling Dragons.........one of our favourite rides in the parks!!

Nice you had such a view of Volcano Bay........looks to be an amazing place.......

So nice to see you all having such a lovely time!

Thanks, the dragons have been a favorite of mine for a long time as well. We are really excited about volcano bay. My kiddos love the water!

 

[samheatherwhite]

G wanted to go to Olivander's and see if she could get picked so after a few pictures we headed to the train station to ride the HE to the other park.

The wait was negligible so early in the morning.

On G's previous trip to Universal we didn't realize that you could see into the back of the Night Bus so as soon as we disembarked from the train she wanted to check it out.

After their peek we went to talk to the driver and the shrunken head who loved Sam's hat.

We then headed right into DA and discovered a problem that would be a pain in the backside the whole trip. B was terrified of the Dragon's fire. We promised him that we would go in shops before she flamed but he didn't care. He wanted to spend as little time on the main street in DA as possible which stunk because G and I could stay there all day. We ended up splitting up more than our original plans but everything was fine.
G already had an interactive wand and we weren't planning on buying a new one unless she got picked. We must be the luckiest family in the world because sure enough she was chosen.
We have seen 3 Olivander shows total and G and I have both been chosen.
She was so excited when he chose her. She did really well and when the spells went wrong the look on her face was priceless. The wand that chose her was a Willow wand with a Unicorn core.
When the wizard helper led us out and asked if we would like to purchase her wand G looked up at her Dad with the biggest pleading eyes known to man. ( She looked just like Puss in Boots!) Sam already had his wallet out. Needless to say if G got a wand B wanted one too. After much deliberation, and help from a very kind shop keeper, B chose the wand of Harry Potter. What was so funny was that he insisted that he did not an interactive wand and we could not convince him to upgrade.

After the purchases were made B wanted to leave the area so he and Sam headed out of the HP area and G and I got in line to ride Gringott's. B was tall enough for this one but apparently had developed Dragon Phobia so there was no way he was going inside the building with that critter on the roof. The wait was less than the 20 minute posted time and soon we were out of there and she was ready to try her new wand.

 

[macraven]

must have been the lucky day since your daughter was chosen in the show.
i see a lot of smiles and intense looks on your children 's faces in the pictures.

they seem to have loved this vacation!

 

[samheatherwhite]

must have been the lucky day since your daughter was chosen in the show.
i see a lot of smiles and intense looks on your children 's faces in the pictures.

they seem to have loved this vacation!

They had a great time and are already asking to go back!

 

[samheatherwhite]

G and I played around in DA trying out several spells and drinking our first frozen Butterbeer of the trip.

One of the must sees for me was the new Sugarplum's Sweetshop. It is a cute shop but I would like to see some items that were exclusively sold there. It is a bit similar to Honeydukes currently, imho.

Here is G with her new wand. She also has the Sirius Black wand which we had with us as well. On a side note, Sirius is one of G's favorite character. I have been hesitant to read the later books with her since she is only 8 and they get pretty dark. Well she is a voracious reader and did so well in her school reading program that I told her at the beginning of 2nd grade that as soon as she could read them on her own she could finish the series. (She had already read 1-3 with me.) Well, she immediately started Goblet of Fire. She wanted to read the school's AR books for points so she read HP at night and on weekends after she finished her smaller chapter books from the library. She ended up finishing Goblet by October and already had over 50 Ar points. She decided that that was not an efficient way to earn points so she decided to wait to read Order of the Phoenix until this Summer. My as to date noncompetitive girl ended up her 2nd grade year with the most Ar points in the entire school which goes up to 6th grade. She blew my mind. HP started her love of reading so we knew a trip to UO was in order.
I am a little worried how she is going to take the rest of the series though. She is about to hit the point where it gets real in the 5th book!

Wingaurdium Leviosa is her favorite spell from the books.

Before our trip I made reservations for lunch at Finnegans for our first park day and for Mythos the next. G and I were supposed to meet the boys at 11 near Finnegans and we still had a while so we explored Knockturn Alley knowing that there was no way B would want to go in there.

We left DA at about 10:45 and called the guys. B was playing in the Spongebob Store so we headed that way.

On the way we saw Doc Brown and he was chatting from the train so I had G take a pic. She had no idea who that was so I told her a bit about the movies as we walked.

We also saw Woody Woodpecker and Curious George so G posed with them. They were cute together.

We soon caught up with this handsome fellow hanging out in front of Squidward's house.
Up next Finnegan's lunch

 

[samheatherwhite]

Since we were traveling at a busy time I decided to make a lunch reservation the first two days and then I could judge how busy everything was going to be and plan from there. Day 1 was Finnegans and I had chosen an early lunch time of 11:15. We are early risers so it works best for us to eat early lunches and suppers which is perfect in the parks, crowd wise.
I have eaten in Finnagans twice and everyone else had been there once and it was a must do, favorite restaurant.
We got there right when it opened and they had no trouble seating us a tiny bit early. It was marvelously cool in there...a little cool for B who was pretty wet from the Fieval splash pool.

G ordered the cod from the children's menu. It came with a nicely seasoned piece of fish, a few small potatoes, some broccoli, and a bowl of applesauce. She really liked it though she prefers her cod fish fried. She had been a busy bee that morning and ate every bite.
Sam got the rueben sandwich which is what he got last time. He loved it and mentioned that if timing worked out that he would love to eat here again. It did not but I can promise that the next time we are in Universal this restaurant will remain number 1 on our repeat list.

B and I shared this wonderful salad. It has a perfectly seasoned chicken breast and was topped with their famous onion and potato web. It is massive and also contains cheese, tomatoes, bacon, and some slivers of squash and zucchini.
Finnegans is easily our favorite restaurant in the parks.
After lunch G wanted to show B the Men In Black ride. The wait said 20 minutes but we ended up waiting much longer than that, probably at least 40.
B was tall enough and he really liked this one. Sam was disappointed that his gun didn't work so I won! We had a set of single riders with us since the seats are 3 across. The wife sat in the front with Sam and B and the husband sat in the back with G and I. Poor guy was embarrassed when he got beaten by everyone in the car but B and he only beat him by 1500 points lol. Sam hit the button first so he had 100000. After this B wanted to so more Jurassic Park so we headed to the HE.

We walked through Hogsmead and it was packed and sooooo hot.
Up next some fun in Jurassic Park.

 

[macraven]

Sounds like a great day!
If you would have told the TM the sons gun did not work, they have put you back in the ride

Your pics are so good!

 

[samheatherwhite]

Sounds like a great day!
If you would have told the TM the sons gun did not work, they have put you back in the ride

Your pics are so good!

Thanks Mac!

 

[samheatherwhite]

We tried to take turns making sure that both kids got to do things especially for them. Since we had already done a lot of Hp for G and I we talked to B at lunch about his number 1 interest to do next. (Besides the pool because he would have totally been ok doing only that the whole trip!)
Jurassic Park play area exploration was his choice.

B's self preservation instincts are on point, LOL. He was not ok with turning his back on the Spinosaurus to take a picture.

B wanted to start at the splash pad so Sam and I found some shade while the kids ran around and got wet.

Next on the agenda was a little exploration in the amber mines. (Forgive the horrible phone pic that does not come near showing how neat it was in there.) G was fascinated by this area. Her 8th birthday party was Jurassic world themed and her Aunt gave her a cool necklace that looked like amber with a mosquito in it. She was annoyed with herself that she didn't pack it to wear at the park.

This pic makes me laugh because it totally shows my children's personalities. G immediately grabbed the "electrified" fence and pretended like she was getting shocked just like Dr. Grant does in the original movie. B panics for a tenth of a second before he recognizes her joke and joins in. It was doubly funny because on our grown ups only trip in November, Sam had done the exact same thing G did when he saw the fence. G is so much like Sam that it scares me sometimes!

Dilophosaurs are some of B's favorite dinos so he was very pleased to see the water guns.

There was a nice man on top that saw the kids playing so after getting a thumbs up from me started shooting the kids with the water guns. Instead of hiding or shooting back G and B ran right into the stream of water, laughing hysterically.

After a thorough soaking we decided to head back to Cabana Bay for some pool time.

On the way out of the park we encountered these two who very friendly. B did not care for the stilts and let G get photos by herself. He did ask me later how on earth those genie people got so tall!

 

[rhondag508]

Great reports so far.Looks like great fun!

 

[samheatherwhite]

Great reports so far.Looks like great fun!

Thank you, we had a great time!