They say, “Third Time is a Charm.” Well, I think I’ve found the best way to celebrate becoming a teenager: escape the snow and spend the week at Universal Orlando Resort! We flew in Michelle’s last night of being a tween and instantly appreciated our hotel’s location. It was an easy walk to try out Bread Box and the place did not disappoint. The weather was chilly (and would be the next day as well) but we saw signs that spring had already sprung in Florida. Not much sleep was had due to excitement and time zones but we were all up and ready to explore Diagon Alley before the park opened. Michelle’s birthday saw members of our group enjoy (not in order): the show at Ollivander’s, ride Gringotts, eat brunch at the Leaky Cauldron, ride Men in Black twice in a row, try out Large Lad Donuts (the big pink one of course), laugh at Fast & Furious Supercharged, laugh way too hard at Horror Make Up Show, run into characters in Hollywood, ride ET and take pictures at the gift shop, watch Celestia Warbeck and the Banshees, exchange cash for Gringotts bank notes, scream with joy on the Mummy (except for Natalie), and watch Beat Builders make music out of construction equipment. (Danny hung out at the pool and got a sunburn during some of that.) Michelle had a fancy birthday dinner at Mythos. It was nice but by the time we got our food the kids were so hungry they were over trying to be fancy. (And for the price the fact that I left hungry is a shame. Let’s just say Leaky Cauldron was much nicer about my food sensitivities.) P.S. Poseidon’s Fury is not what I expected. It was like a haunted house married a comedian and had a baby.
Oh, and we had the perfect number of people to try out all 4 kinds of Butterbeer: hot, normal, frozen & dairy free. They were all delicious!
Since we still had some time we rode the Hogwart’s Express to Hogsmeade to buy chocolate frogs for Michelle's birthday. In true fashion, Michelle only wore her birthday button on her actual birthday but it was indeed a magical day. When all three chocolate frog trading cards were duplicates, Michelle got to trade one of the employees for three cards she didn't have. Apparently that's usually not allowed so it is a good thing we hit up Honeydukes on her actual birthday! Natalie really liked Forbidden Journey inside of Hogwarts and we rode the Hippogriff ride while the castle show was going on that night. So fun to enjoy both at the same time, especially since there were large groups of people watching the show so Natalie probably wouldn't have been able to see well anyway if we had just stood there.
The rest of the trip kind of became a blur. I know Tuesday we woke up bright and early to ride Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure and only had to wait about 45 minutes for the best ride ever! We spent time at Islands riding Jurassic Park River Adventure & Express Pass rides in Seussland. Danny and Michelle rode Velocicoaster and loved it. Natalie and I decided to pass. It just looked way too scary. We rested at the hotel in the afternoon and then headed to US to eat Mardi Gras Carnaval booth food for dinner and watch the parade. It was so much fun & even though we were behind others who had staked out their spots much sooner than we did, we came back to the hotel with 44 strands of beads. Danny and Michelle tackled Rip Ride Rocket while Natalie and I rode Despicable Me & Transformers. I think we all rode Men In Black a couple times. By the looks of our ride picture we were all taking it very seriously!
After needing to rest the day before we decided to sleep in on Wednesday. We still had plenty of time to meet a baby Velociraptor, ride the Toon Lagoon water rides, eat a delicious lunch at Wimpy's, and somehow early that morning my 13 years olds convinced my 9 & 3/4 year old to ride Velocicoaster too. Natalie was NOT a fan! Eventually with us taking turns Danny, Michelle & I all got to ride it 3 times on our trip but Natalie was never doing that again. But we loved riding Hagrid's in the dark after spending our afternoon at Volcano Bay water park. We were so glad it was warm enough to go enjoy slides & the Fearless River!
Thursday we decided not to wake up too early again since we got to ride Hagrid's in the dark right before park closing. It was actually perfect timing because as the ride ended (while we were by the unicorns) the fireworks went off at the finale of the castle show. It was pretty neat! Back to Thursday: The day before we had purchased post cards and stamps and mailed them with a special Hogsmeade post mark. We (Danny, Natalie and I because Michelle was drained) also interacted with the Knight Bus, bought another Big Pink donut, and watched show after show after show. It turns out that if you time it right you can watch the Animal Actors show, then walk a little ways and catch the Horror Show, and then watch the Bourne Stuntacular. Pretty neat stuff, especially when you are looking for a more relaxing day! That afternoon found all of us back at Volcano Bay riding more slides and hanging out in the Fearless River again. After getting our water park fill we went back to Islands to eat at the Marvel character dining. I was excited to get a picture with my favorite super hero but our interaction with Spiderman was amazing. (See what I did there?) Turns out Peter is scared of Michelle due to her passionate opinions about the Scarlet Witch and how she got robbed in the last Dr. Strange movie. Michelle happened to cut her cookie violently in half as she spoke and that was enough that when we took our photo with Spiderman I had to promise to stand in between him and her. That entire experience was the hardest I had laughed in a very long time! It was so fun to ride Spiderman with Natalie and I was able to catch all 5 of Stan Lee's cameos. That made me so darn happy too.
Friday was our last day in the parks and Danny and I decided to take full advantage of early park entry while we still could. We got to Islands of Adventure super early and walked onto Hagrid's, then walked on to Velocicoaster, then bought Danny breakfast while we waited for Marvel Island to open and then used our Express Passes to walk onto Hulk twice in a row. By then it was 9:08am (the park officially opened at 9:00) and we decided to go wake up the girls and get ready to go to Volcano Bay early enough to get good beach chairs with shade and ride Krakatow. It was a perfect afternoon in the high 80s. Danny was so tired by the time we got home that he stayed at the hotel while Michelle and Natalie and I headed out to catch the Beadle the Bard show, use the wands some more, meet Mardi Gras characters, I rode Rip Ride Rocket for the first time (Hulk and RRR were easy compared to Velocicoaster!) while the girls rode Men In Black twice, and we finished off the night by watching the parade from a prime location (in front of the Horror show). If you watch from there you are at the parade start and finish and get to catch beads twice. We made sure to get front row spots (so convenient to eat crepes from the nearby stand while we waited) and came back to the hotel with 92 strands of beads to show Danny! So fun. One of the team members "bribed" the children to stay out of the street by handing out little creatures like puppies she had made from broken beads. Such a great touch. I also think us wearing the Dollar Tree Mardi Gras masks I purchased at home helped people want to throw beads to us but the little girl in a full costume next to us got even more attention. lol. We left the parks feeling very pleased with all we were able to do and were ready to go get some sleep to be ready to head home the next day.
Our final day we packed up, left our luggage with baggage services, headed to City Walk via the ferry, the kids ate Menchies for breakfast (not my idea!), and checked into Universal’s Great Movie Escape. This was a Jurassic World themed escape room that definitely had the special effects you would expect from a show at Universal + puzzles to work together to solve. Some parts were easy, some were hard, and one part was downright scary. If we had the time, we would have been tempted to try the Back To The Future version but the price was a bit steep and we only had time to look around the huge Universal gift shop before grabbing lunch (beginning and ending our trip with Bread Box for meals), walking back to the hotel to grab our stuff (and complimentary pink lemonade), and wait for the Mears shuttle bus. I’m glad the Facebook group I joined mentioned to be there early because the bus did show up a few minutes ahead of schedule. Soon we were on the way to MCO and updating Hubby on our flight delays. We were so happy to see him at the airport! We had a wonderful trip but missed Hubby and Kate and were definitely ready to recover from our adventures. I'm so grateful we got to got on such a great spring break trip!
P.S. Now that Grandma knows our surprise I can add this to the blog post. Hubby and I actually had a super important conversation while I was on that bus ride to MCO! You see, the day before when we were talking Hubby informed me that the last payment on his truck went through and his vehicle was paid off! Hooray! As it turns out he found a used car he really wanted that "checked off all the boxes" so after talking to me on the phone we decided to pick it up on the way home from the airport and not tell the kids. Since it would be late at night (and our flight was delayed over an hour), Hubby had the keys in his pocket and the dealership employees parked it on the edge of the lot for him. I did let Natalie know a little about it since she hates surprises so she knew Dad bought another car and that no, he didn't trade the truck in. Actually, when all three girls saw the new car for the first time they all asked immediately if we had sold the truck. Our family sure does love that truck! Since I hadn't gotten to drive it yet Hubby had me drive it home. Danny got to be there when I drove a manual for the first time in about 5 years and let's just say he didn't feel safe as I reminded myself of what to do in a car in the dark. lol. What a way to end a trip! Surprise! And congrats on the new car, Hubby!
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