We surprised the kids on Christmas Day with a trip to Disney World and Universal Studios. They got their second part of the surprise at the airport. . . we were going with The Gists!
We left on New Year's Day and arrived in Orlando late afternoon. We were doing a lot of hotel hopping this trip. Our first night we stayed at the Doubletree right near Universal since it was cheaper and we wouldn't be there for long. After checking in, we headed over to Universal's City Walk to eat dinner and walk around. We ate at Vivo Italian Kitchen. It was delicious.
We packed up and checked out of the Doubletree bright and early on Tuesday morning. We were planning to stay the next night at the Royal Pacific hotel. This hotel was super expensive, hence why we only stayed 1 night, however, it also came with the coveted express passes. We were able to check in to the hotel starting at 6 am and get our express passes and park tickets. Staying just 1 night got us express passes for 2 days. I don't think we'd ever do Universal without these passes. With the exception of 2 rides, they allowed us to get in the express pass line which significantly cut down on our wait times!
We walked over to Islands of Adventure about 30 minutes before the park opened to hotel guests and got in line. Since Hagrid's was 1 of the rides that didn't take the express pass, we decided we'd make our way there first. That turned out to be a really great decision. I think we only waited about 30 min for a ride that later in the day had over a 2 hour wait. It was a super fun rollercoaster with several surprises. I don't think any of us were expecting it to be as intense as it was. From there we spent the day riding just about all the rides at Islands of Adventure. . .some we even rode twice. Em loved the big rollercoasters. Velocicoaster and Hulk were some of her favorites. Thankfully Shawn was willing to ride them with her because I was not!
Evan loved the Harry Potter area, unfortunately, it was the most crowded area! He got a wand and was able to use it to complete different spells and tasks. We all enjoyed the frozen butter beer. Late afternoon we rode the Hogwarts Express over to the Universal Studios and rode a few of the rides there before eating dinner at Finnegan's Bar & Grill.
The next day we slept in a bit and got to Universal Studios shortly after it opened at 9:00 am. We spent the day riding all of the rides at that park. I think the Mummy ride was a crowd favorite. With the express passes we rode it 3 times in a row. Em really wanted to ride Rip Rock It, but with the 90 degree incline up to the top of the hill, none of the rest of us were interested. Thankfully, after a whole lot of convincing, Courtney finally agreed to ride it with her. She sure took 1 for the team and made Em one happy girl!
We took the Hogwarts Express back to IOA for dinner at Mythos this night. We hit up a few more rides after dinner before heading back to the hotel to get our bags. We were making 1 more hotel transfer! This night we moved over to Coronado Springs on Disney property and were thankfully staying there for the next 4 nights!
No comments:
Post a Comment