Yes, We're Satisfied With Our Care! October 2015 TR **NEW 8/21 Final Thoughts

[khertz]

Day 3 Continued: Monday October 19th

When I left off, DD and I were headed to the first aid station for her to eat while DH and DS were off to have some prehistoric fun in Camp Jurassic.

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While in Jurassic Park, they took a ride on the Pteranodon Flyers, which didn’t have a long wait. This attraction doesn’t have Express Pass, so it was a good time to ride, and DS really enjoyed it!

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It also gave some good views into the Skull Island expansion.

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Looks like break time!


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After their ride, they explored the play area, Camp Jurassic.

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Once DD and I were done, we met up with the boys back in Hogsmeade. We figured it would be long, but we still stopped to check the wait time at Forbidden Journey just in case. But it was 45 minutes, so we passed for now and just figured we wouldn’t get to experience it this trip.

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Flight of the Hippogriff also had a 45 minute wait, but new since our last visit, it now offered Express Pass access. DS and I went on it, although he was a little nervous. I kept comparing it to Woody Woodpecker, so he was a little more adventurous.

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While we were riding, DH got some pictures of this lovely castle.

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Ugh. Still waiting for my letter!


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Daredevil DS decided he liked Flight of the Hippogriff so much he wanted to ride again with DH, so we did a swap.

Continued in next post...

 

[khertz]

Day 3 Continued: Monday October 19th

After their ride, we decided to pull the trigger on something DH and I had been quietly discussing without letting DS know in case we decided not to do it. We bought a wand! So our next stop was Ollivander’s to match with the perfect wand. We looked at the samples to see which ones we liked, and DS kept pointing out that he wanted Ginny’s wand. However, these things are not cheap, and DH and I wanted to steer him in the direction of ones we liked. So we gave him the choice between Harry’s, Voldemort’s, and Dumbledore’s. We decided to go with Harry’s. Unfortunately, DD and I were not a part of the purchasing of the wand just because she was passed out sleeping in the stroller and there was no way I was trying to navigate that little store with a double stroller. So DH and DS went inside to make the purchase.

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Of course, this photo op just had to happen.

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Expecto Patronum!​

By then we were getting a bit hungry for lunch. I had really wanted to eat at the Leaky Cauldron, but we didn’t think it was worth waiting for the train again to go back over to Diagon Alley. So we made our way back into Hogsmeade to eat at Three Broomsticks.

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The TM at the entrance told us we wouldn’t be able to bring the stroller inside, so I hesitated. I didn’t want to take DD out and disturb her, but we were definitely ready to eat. He noticed my hesitation and offered to let us eat behind the restaurant on the outdoor patio. Perfect! He walked us back there and we got a large round table over the water where I settled down with the kids while DH went inside to order and get our food.

DH got the chicken & ribs platter served with corn on the cob and roasted potatoes.

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I got the Shepherd’s Pie – ground beef and vegetables crowned with potatoes. It came with a garden salad, but since I’m not a salad fan, DH asked to sub potatoes for the salad. I loved that he thought to do this, and no I did not care that it was double potatoes! Carbs is my favorite food group!

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DS got the macaroni and cheese with grapes and applesauce.

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It was a bit windy to eat outside, but it was one of the days of our trip with nicer weather, so I’m glad we did. And the view was not bad either!

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After filling up on lunch, we wandered around Hogsmeade for a little bit before heading back to Jurassic Park.

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I love that it’s always winter in Hogsmeade!


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Finally, we made it across the bridge back to Jurassic Park.

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We went to check out the new Raptor Encounter, but the wait time was like 45 minutes to an hour so we didn’t get to do that. Instead we decided to go let DS explore the Discovery Center.

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While DS ran around exploring, I found a bench over in a dark corner where there was a big dinosaur trivia game to sit with DD and feed her. By the end, I knew a LOT about dinosaurs! While playing around on my phone with the Universal app during the feeding, I realized that Forbidden Journey had a single rider line I had forgotten all about. We had given up on being able to ride since the wait time had remained pretty steady at 45 minutes all day long. So once we were done, DH took the kids back over to the Camp Jurassic play area while I went to ride FJ.

It was a bummer missing a huge chunk of the queue through Hogwarts, but I was able to get on in a little less than 20 minutes. It was just as incredible of a ride as I remembered! Definitely a must for any Harry Potter fan. I love how it incorporates screens with animatronics and movement of the vehicle.

DH and I agreed to meet on the bridge between Hogsmeade and Jurassic Park. While I was waiting for them, I hopped in a very short line at the Butterbeer cart and had a frozen one in hand by the time they made it to me. This time we convinced DS to try a little and…

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He loved it! He actually ended up drinking it so fast he got brain freeze. He almost didn’t want to give it back. I told DH we shouldn’t have tried so hard to get him to try some because now we’d have to share it with him every time!

After that, we were ready for some Seuss-sized fun, so I'm sure you can guess where we were headed next!

UP NEXT: We Looked & We Saw Him, the Cat in the Hat!

 

[amazingact21]

Nice recap of HHN. Sounds like it was a fun time, and I give kudos to Kristy for handling both kids by herself on vacation. Having been forced to do that on this last trip due to all the illnesses, I know that that's no small feat!


Sorry about the early morning mixup. At least there was ice cream as a consolation prize...
That blondie flavored treat sounds amazing!


So, now that Universal's made a regular, a frozen, and an ice cream flavored Butterbeer, which would you say is your favorite version?

 

[Dugette]

Sounds like a fun time, especially for DS. If and when we ever make it to Universal, I really need to try a frozen Butterbeer!

 

[afwdwfan]

It also gave some good views into the Skull Island expansion.

Wow! Cool!

Flight of the Hippogriff also had a 45 minute wait, but new since our last visit, it now offered Express Pass access.

I just can't even imagine waiting 45 minutes for that.

Daredevil DS decided he liked Flight of the Hippogriff so much he wanted to ride again with DH, so we did a swap.

Awesome! I'm glad he enjoyed it. I mean, it's a good ride, but definitely not worth a 45 minute wait.

The TM at the entrance told us we wouldn’t be able to bring the stroller inside, so I hesitated. I didn’t want to take DD out and disturb her, but we were definitely ready to eat. He noticed my hesitation and offered to let us eat behind the restaurant on the outdoor patio. Perfect! He walked us back there and we got a large round table over the water where I settled down with the kids while DH went inside to order and get our food.

I'm glad they found a suitable alternative for you.

DH got the chicken & ribs platter served with corn on the cob and roasted potatoes.

That looks amazing.

Carbs is my favorite food group!

Yeah, I can relate.

It was a bummer missing a huge chunk of the queue through Hogwarts, but I was able to get on in a little less than 20 minutes. It was just as incredible of a ride as I remembered! Definitely a must for any Harry Potter fan. I love how it incorporates screens with animatronics and movement of the vehicle.

I'm glad you finally were able to ride it. I also find it ironic that the things you love about that ride are the things I don't like about it.

He loved it! He actually ended up drinking it so fast he got brain freeze. He almost didn’t want to give it back. I told DH we shouldn’t have tried so hard to get him to try some because now we’d have to share it with him every time!

I'm glad he enjoyed it. I guess that means you'll just have to buy 2 next time.

 

[missangelalexis]

DS looks like he had such fun in the Jurassic Park area! And I'm glad he liked Flight of the Hippogriff!

So fun that you decided to buy a wand. DS looks so cute holding it in front of the castle!

Carbs is the best food group

I'm glad you were able to get on FJ after all! And that DS finally tried butter beer...looks like you'll have to buy more than 1 from now on!

 

[hokieinpa]

The whole Jurassic Park area looks like so much fun! Great play area - and it doesn't look too crowded!

Glad you got to ride Flight of the Hippogriff and FJ!

Lunch at the Three Broomsticks looks great and that frozen butterbeer looks so good!

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Of course, this photo op just had to happen.

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It was a bit windy to eat outside, but it was one of the days of our trip with nicer weather, so I’m glad we did. And the view was not bad either!

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looks like a lovely lunch spot!

He loved it! He actually ended up drinking it so fast he got brain freeze. He almost didn’t want to give it back. I told DH we shouldn’t have tried so hard to get him to try some because now we’d have to share it with him every time!

 

[khertz]

Nice recap of HHN. Sounds like it was a fun time, and I give kudos to Kristy for handling both kids by herself on vacation. Having been forced to do that on this last trip due to all the illnesses, I know that that's no small feat!


Sorry about the early morning mixup. At least there was ice cream as a consolation prize...
That blondie flavored treat sounds amazing!


So, now that Universal's made a regular, a frozen, and an ice cream flavored Butterbeer, which would you say is your favorite version?

It was definitely tough wrangling them both for the evening, especially since DH couldn't even walk us to the resort to get settled, but I'm glad DH was able to enjoy HHN. It's not at all my idea of fun, but I know how much he wanted to go!

Despite the mixup, it ended up not being a total loss of a morning at least. And in addition to the delicious ice cream breakfast, we learned an important lesson...don't trust the internet!! lol

Well, we have never tried the regular, so I can't compare all 3. And while I love ice cream and the butterbeer ice cream is REALLY good, I still have to give it to the frozen Butterbeer. It's just so delicious!! I could drink it by the bucketful.

Sounds like a fun time, especially for DS. If and when we ever make it to Universal, I really need to try a frozen Butterbeer!

YES. It's pretty much worth going to Universal just for the Butterbeer alone. lol

Wow! Cool!

It looks like it's going to be a really amazing addition to Islands! I can't wait for it to open!

I just can't even imagine waiting 45 minutes for that.

Right?! It's over in about 45 seconds!

Awesome! I'm glad he enjoyed it. I mean, it's a good ride, but definitely not worth a 45 minute wait.

Thank goodness for Express Pass! It's great that they added it to that attraction since our last visit.

I'm glad they found a suitable alternative for you.

I was definitely appreciative of that. And it was perfect weather to be eating outside anyway!

That looks amazing.

We have always enjoyed our meals there. The food is great!

Yeah, I can relate.

And that's why I'll never lose that 20 lbs I always think about losing... lol

I'm glad you finally were able to ride it. I also find it ironic that the things you love about that ride are the things I don't like about it.

As much as I love the ride, I can only ride it once at a time! Even taking Dramamine, it makes me feel so queasy after!

I'm glad he enjoyed it. I guess that means you'll just have to buy 2 next time.

Yep, one isn't going to cut it anymore now that we have him hooked!

DS looks like he had such fun in the Jurassic Park area! And I'm glad he liked Flight of the Hippogriff!

So fun that you decided to buy a wand. DS looks so cute holding it in front of the castle!

Carbs is the best food group

I'm glad you were able to get on FJ after all! And that DS finally tried butter beer...looks like you'll have to buy more than 1 from now on!

The play areas at the Universal parks are really great. Sometimes I think DS likes them more than anything else! But he does really enjoy the attractions, and he seemed to be a little more thrill seeking this time.

I kind of couldn't believe we spent money on a wand, but it made DS SO happy! And DH and I had always kind of wanted one, but I mean, what do you really do with a fake wand? lol But it did make for some great pics!

I was so happy I got to ride FJ! It's such a fun attraction and has a great queue.

Yeah, now that we are all hooked on Butterbeer, I see that we will have to buy a lot more of them next trip!!

The whole Jurassic Park area looks like so much fun! Great play area - and it doesn't look too crowded!

Glad you got to ride Flight of the Hippogriff and FJ!

Lunch at the Three Broomsticks looks great and that frozen butterbeer looks so good!

The Jurassic Play area is kind of out of the way, so there never really seems to be a lot of people around. And of course, DS loves any place he can run around like a crazy person!

I had kind of given up on getting to ride the stuff in Hogsmeade, so it was great that we were able to in the end!

Wizarding World definitely has some of the best food & snacks in the whole park!!

looks like a lovely lunch spot!

It was beautiful and the weather was perfect!

 

[khertz]

Day 3 Continued: Monday October 19th

After lots of fun learning about dinos at the Jurassic Park Discovery Center and enjoying a frozen Butterbeer e decided to go the opposite way through Hogsmeade to go over to Seuss Landing next.

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We found a shady spot to park the stroller and decided that I would wait with a sleeping DD while DH and DS went to ride the High In the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride. I think it takes longer to say the name of the attraction than it does for the actual ride, but it’s still pretty fun. And I love The Sneetches, so I enjoy that the ride is based off of the book.

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They came back and DH and I switched off, this time so I could take DS on the Cat in the Hat ride. I don’t think this one has a height restriction so DD could have ridden. But I remembered it whipping around a lot more than it actually did, so we decided to keep her off. However, it does seem a lot tamer now than I remember it being in the past. DS enjoyed himself! This is another book along with The Sneetches that we enjoy reading before bedtime.

DH caught some characters hanging around while we were gone.

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When we were finished, DS asked to ride again. DD was still sleeping so DH took him back onto Cat in the Hat.

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Continued in next post...

 

[khertz]

Day 3 Continued: Monday October 19th

We were about finished in Islands of Adventure by then, so we were ready to finish up the day at Universal Studios. Why walk when you can take the Hogwarts Express? So we made the short walk back over to Hogsmeade, hoping the wait wouldn’t be long.

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It wasn’t too long before we were all settled in our compartment and ready to go back over to Diagon Alley. Make sure if you have a park-to-park ticket and you take the Hogwarts Express between the parks that you ride each way! The action out the windows and in the corridors of the train are different in each direction.

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Once we disembarked in Diagon Alley, I took DD to first aid over by the old Beetlejuice show to feed her while DH and DS went to ride Men In Black again.

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When I came out of first aid, they were waiting for me on the curb with a frozen Coke. Yum!

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We were starting to wind down, so we gave DS the choice of a couple more things he wanted to do before leaving. He wanted to do Transformers, so DH took him on that next.

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After that, DH must have put the camera away until we were ready to leave because I have no more pictures until we walked out of the park! After Transformers, I took DS on Minion Mayhem because I hadn’t had a chance to ride it yet and I really like that attraction! Despite having some minion fatigue, it’s really cute.

Then I went to ride Mummy while DH took the kids back to the Fievel’s play area. I couldn’t leave without getting to ride Mummy at least once!! I met them over in the play area when I was done and DS asked for his last attraction to be with Woody Woodpecker coaster, so DH took him.

We wanted to get some dinner before heading out of the park, so we stopped at Mel’s Drive In for some burgers. We found a table in the back corner of the restaurant where no one else was sitting so that I could nurse DD in the booth while we ate.

Then it was time to say goodbye to Universal. I was excited for the Disney part of our trip to begin, but I was really sad to be leaving Universal!

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We walked back to Hard Rock Hotel to get our bags and load up the car for our trip to Bonnet Creek where we would be spending the rest of our vacation.

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While I stopped at bell services to pick up our bags, DH went to get the car and pull it around to the front of the hotel. I had a nice chat with the guy from bell services while we waited for DH to come around. He asked about our time in Universal and what we would be doing for the rest of our trip. I mentioned we were from New Orleans and he said he was heading there soon for a wedding, so I gave him some suggestions on what not to miss while he was in town. I really enjoyed chatting with him.

Eventually DH showed up with the car and it was time to load up. It was pretty tight having to fit all of our luggage into the car with the addition of the double stroller, but somehow it worked.

It took us about 20 minutes to drive to Bonnet Creek. I waited in the car while DH went to check us in. We were on the third floor of tower two. It seemed to be a quieter location than we have had in the past. Not that the other towers we have been in were bad, but this one just seemed like there was less foot traffic around when we were coming and going.

Our bags were brought up quickly, and shortly after that someone arrived with the Pack’n’Play we had requested for DD. Our unit was a 1 bedroom, so she was in the PnP in the bedroom with us while DS slept out on the sofa bed in the living room. The PnP fit perfectly in the space between the bed and the half-wall separating the bedroom from the tub area of the bathroom. A 1 bedroom is still plenty of space for the four of us, and likely will be until DD is quite a bit older.

After doing some unpacking, we were all in bed and passed out before 10 pm. It had been 2 packed but fun days at Universal, and now we were ready to switch over into Disney mode!

UP NEXT: Gutterball!

 

[missangelalexis]

As an adult, I love that dang trolley ride! it's so cute!

The train is a really nice form of transportation between the two parks! The walk between the 2 isn't terrible, but when your feet are tired I bet it's a nice perk!

Really nice final photos of Universal! I'm sure it was sad to leave, but nothing better to cure that than DISNEY! Can't wait to hear about this part of the trip

 

[Imagineer5]

^^ I love the trolley ride too! LOL! I still don't get the 40" height restriction - Aria still hasn't ridden it bc last time we went to universal was a year ago when she was 38". And surprisingly, there is a restriction for Cat in the Hat (36" I believe?) so Delilah wouldn't have been able to ride that. IMO it's like Pooh so I think that is silly. Anyway, very nice last day at Universal, you got a LOT done - so nice to have the express pass! That will be a must when we do return there. Glad you got to ride FJ via the SR line - having a stroller helps with that too since you can leave all your stuff in it vs. getting lockers for every ride. Loved that Paxton wanted Woody Woodpecker to be his last ride - he and Aria would have a ball in the parks together!

Funny that we were both writing about arriving at Bonnet Creek in our last updates! LOL! Although I am much more behind than you are. haha

Looking forward to your time at Disney!

 

[afwdwfan]

We found a shady spot to park the stroller and decided that I would wait with a sleeping DD while DH and DS went to ride the High In the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride. I think it takes longer to say the name of the attraction than it does for the actual ride, but it’s still pretty fun

When I came out of first aid, they were waiting for me on the curb with a frozen Coke. Yum!

Definitely a great snack to cool off with!

I took DS on Minion Mayhem because I hadn’t had a chance to ride it yet and I really like that attraction! Despite having some minion fatigue, it’s really cute.

Yeah, I get the minion fatigue, but for some reason, I still just really like them. Even though I pretty much can't watch the movies anymore (because we've seen them so many times) the minions themselves are still entertaining.

After doing some unpacking, we were all in bed and passed out before 10 pm. It had been 2 packed but fun days at Universal, and now we were ready to switch over into Disney mode!

It was definitely a nice visit to Universal for your family, but I can only imagine how excited everyone was to be getting into Disney mode. I'm glad the check-out and check-in processes went smoothly.

 

[katt789]

Glad you managed to wrangle the kids solo that night! A nice early bedtime for mostly everyone! Lol.


HHN is something that I do want to experience, but I’m still SO hesitant about it, like I love being scared, but also might like, cry…bahah. I’ll need to go with a group of people who has someone else who will be okay just doing scarezones if the houses are too intense! Bahaha. Also I would go strictly to see diagon alley at night empty! Great updates and pictures!!


I always find the Hogwarts express line to be longer when you’re leaving from hogsmaede, don’t know why….lol. All these Hogwarts pictures are KILLING me! I usually didn’t bring my camera to universal, or we went before I had my good one, and now ALL I WANT is to go back to see it all again and attempt good pictures!!


Love the updates, and excited to read about your Disney portion of the trip!

 

[khertz]

As an adult, I love that dang trolley ride! it's so cute!

The train is a really nice form of transportation between the two parks! The walk between the 2 isn't terrible, but when your feet are tired I bet it's a nice perk!

Really nice final photos of Universal! I'm sure it was sad to leave, but nothing better to cure that than DISNEY! Can't wait to hear about this part of the trip

It's adorable!! And it helps I love the book it is based off of.

I absolutely love the addition of the train as a way between parks. Even if I wasn't such an HP nerd, it's definitely a nicer way to travel between instead of walking all the way through City Walk!

We were definitely excited about Disney, but I've never been as disappointed to leave Universal as I was this trip. I think because I had been so much looking forward to the Diagon Alley expansion, and the perks of staying onsite were soooo nice. It actually spoiled us with the Express Pass and we were glad that for February we had been forced to switch to doing Disney first and finishing on Universal.

^^ I love the trolley ride too! LOL! I still don't get the 40" height restriction - Aria still hasn't ridden it bc last time we went to universal was a year ago when she was 38". And surprisingly, there is a restriction for Cat in the Hat (36" I believe?) so Delilah wouldn't have been able to ride that. IMO it's like Pooh so I think that is silly. Anyway, very nice last day at Universal, you got a LOT done - so nice to have the express pass! That will be a must when we do return there. Glad you got to ride FJ via the SR line - having a stroller helps with that too since you can leave all your stuff in it vs. getting lockers for every ride. Loved that Paxton wanted Woody Woodpecker to be his last ride - he and Aria would have a ball in the parks together!

Funny that we were both writing about arriving at Bonnet Creek in our last updates! LOL! Although I am much more behind than you are. haha

Looking forward to your time at Disney!

I don't get it either?!? I guess because it's up so high and a little kid could slip out or something?? I don't know, I still think it's kind of crazy that 2 of the 4 rides in Seuss Landing have height restrictions!! Yeah, I totally missed the height requirement at Cat in the Hat in October, I guess because I had decided I didn't want her to ride anyway because of the spinning, but I noticed in February when I wanted to take her on in the carrier. So crazy! It's the only kids section of the park!

Those express passes are absolute GOLD with small kids!! It got us on and off of everything so quick, which is so great when you have to rider swap almost everything. It totally spoiled us, and we were not as impressed with the FP lines at Disney. We had to reprogram DS once we got there and explain that we couldn't just go right back on something because he wanted to ride again!

Oh yeah, it was SO nice not having to get a locker any time we wanted to ride something!!

Aw, I bet they would!! One of these days...now we are adding a couple of quick trips, so I'll have to look back at your posts and see when you are planning to be there again! We will be there at the end of May, possibly in July for the DIS 10th Anniversary events, and definitely in October the 8th-16th!

Definitely a great snack to cool off with!

I had been craving one for a long time, so it was a great surprise to enjoy when I came out of first aid!

Yeah, I get the minion fatigue, but for some reason, I still just really like them. Even though I pretty much can't watch the movies anymore (because we've seen them so many times) the minions themselves are still entertaining.

I've kind of gotten past the minion fatigue by now, but at the time of this trip, they were EVERYWHERE because of the new movie coming out! Still a great attraction, though, and the minions are pretty funny.

It was definitely a nice visit to Universal for your family, but I can only imagine how excited everyone was to be getting into Disney mode. I'm glad the check-out and check-in processes went smoothly.

As much fun as we had at Universal, I was ready for DD to be able to go on some stuff. Although she was a little angel hanging out in the stroller all day, I felt bad that she was in there most of the time. Even though I knew she wouldn't get much out of it, I was looking forward to being able to do things as a family instead of having to take turns on everything!

Glad you managed to wrangle the kids solo that night! A nice early bedtime for mostly everyone! Lol.


HHN is something that I do want to experience, but I’m still SO hesitant about it, like I love being scared, but also might like, cry…bahah. I’ll need to go with a group of people who has someone else who will be okay just doing scarezones if the houses are too intense! Bahaha. Also I would go strictly to see diagon alley at night empty! Great updates and pictures!!


I always find the Hogwarts express line to be longer when you’re leaving from hogsmaede, don’t know why….lol. All these Hogwarts pictures are KILLING me! I usually didn’t bring my camera to universal, or we went before I had my good one, and now ALL I WANT is to go back to see it all again and attempt good pictures!!


Love the updates, and excited to read about your Disney portion of the trip!

Oh my gosh, I HATE being scared, so HHN is totally NOT for me!!! I did it once on our honeymoon because we got free tickets, and I spent the whole evening hanging out in shops so the scare actors couldn't mess with me! lol But I was definitely jealous of DH getting to see Diagon Alley all empty and lit up for nighttime. That would have been cool to experience! Just not the rest of it... lol

You know, I noticed the same thing about leaving Hogsmeade!! I think it's because the ticket scanners are right at the entrance so the line backs up far outside and it's more noticeable where in London, you have to walk into the station a bit before getting to the scanners so it absorbs the line a little better. Whatever it was, I was glad we got to experience it each way because we didn't get so lucky with wait times in February.

 

[hokieinpa]

Seuss Landing looks like fun! Great wrap up to your days at Universal with rides on your favorites again!

Excited to read about your Disney time!

 

[Dugette]

Looks like you had a nice ending to the Universal portion of your trip. Can't wait to hear about the Disney part!

 

[khertz]

Seuss Landing looks like fun! Great wrap up to your days at Universal with rides on your favorites again!

Excited to read about your Disney time!

Seuss Landing was definitely a hit with DS! He loved everything we did there. It was nice to have plenty of time at Universal, so that with Express Passes, we had time to ride everything we wanted and re-ride our favorites!

Looks like you had a nice ending to the Universal portion of your trip. Can't wait to hear about the Disney part!

It was a great few days, but we were excited to start off our Disney time too!!

 

[khertz]

Day 4: Tuesday October 20th

Our first morning at Bonnet Creek was somewhat of a lazy one. DS woke up around 7:40 am, but he was content to watch a little TV out in the front room, so the rest of us were able to doze a bit in bed until 8:30 or so when he was ready for breakfast. We were not in a rush to get ready since we weren’t planning to leave until 10 am for our destination for the day. The activities for this day were a total surprise for DS. He had been asking and asking at home to go bowling, so when we were looking for something to do for the day so as not to use a day on our Disney tickets before heading to MNSSHP that night, we thought what better way to introduce him to his first time bowling than to take him to Splitsville! It was a first time for all of us to visit there, so DH and I were pretty excited to try it out as well.

We parked in the new parking garage at Disney Springs, which was actually perfectly situated right next to Splitsville. However, we were still a little too early and it wasn’t open yet, so we poked around in a couple of stores while we waited.

Soon enough, it was open and we went inside to get a lane.

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Since we were there early in the day, we got early bird pricing, which was $12 for adults and $8 for kids. Not expensive at all, especially considering it’s Disney! For that price, you get 75 minutes to bowl as many games as you can in that time frame.

DS was so excited, especially when he saw the bowling balls!

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With DS, we got a ramp for him to help him bowl. And our lane was programmed that when it was his turn to bowl, metal bumpers would rise up from the gutters, and then they would go back down when it was DH’s or my turn. This is also considered like a restaurant (you can go there to eat without bowling as well), so soon enough, a server came over to take our drink order.

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In that last picture, you can get an idea of how the tables are in relation to the lanes. The booth behind DS is actually for the lane next to us, but we had an identical one behind our lane. While we were bowling, we decided to order some lunch. DS got a kids pizza, and DH and I both got burgers. It was really good food!

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Our lunches


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Kids pizza close up


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Burger & fries


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Obviously, it took me a little while to get the hang of bowling after not doing it for years. DS actually beat me by one point! Lol

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Towards the end of our time, DD was starting to get fussy, so I sat in the booth and fed her while letting DS bowl my turns. He was having a total blast! In the time we had paid for, we had enough time for about 3 games and a little more of a 4th. When our time was up, we checked out the merchandise on the way out. There were a few t-shirt designs that were buy one for $20, get the second for $4, so DH and I each picked one out. Unfortunately there was nothing great for kids.

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We didn’t have any time to shop any more while at Disney Springs because we wanted to get back for the kids to take good naps before the Halloween Party that night, so we headed back to the car to go back to Bonnet Creek. Once we got back, DS went right down for a nap, and I got DD to sleep soon after. I was able to take a little nap too while DH made another grocery run. We wanted to get plenty of rest because we had a busy night ahead of us!

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