Isaac couldn't get enough days off work, so I flew out to Florida and back without him and he was only there part of the time. The kids and I left on a Sunday afternoon. Originally we thought our seats would be next to my parents, Jamie and Kevin, but they got shuffled around so I had the 3 kids by myself. Fortunately the plane had built in tablets on each seat so they could play games and watch movies. It was a long flight, but the kids did great. Luke never napped, so he wiggled on my lap the whole time. But they were really good. I think it was good that my family didn't end up near by because then the kids would have been switching seats like crazy going back and forth between everyone.
We landed Sunday evening and went to Gary's house for dinner. We all stayed at his house, and I was worried it would be really crowded with 15 people living there. But it was a great set up. Isaac (when he was there), Luke, and I shared one room. Jamie was with Sophie and Aspen. Gary and Sarah had a room with all their kids. And my parents had a room. And Jason and Kevin slept in the living room.
On Monday morning Sarah and I ran to the store to get some food and things for the trip. Then we just hung around their house. The kids played together really well. Gary's kids introduced my kids to video games, since we don't have that stuff at our house. Later in the afternoon we tried to go swimming at the pool near Gary's house. We all got in our suits and went over, but the water wasn't heated and it wasn't super warm outside. I told the kids I would swim with them, but when I got there it was way too cold and I told them I lied. Fortunately Kevin got in briefly with the kids. But they were the only ones crazy enough to brave the water. So it was a short swimming trip.
That night Gary and Sarah took us to the largest McDonald's in the world for dinner. It had the same food as a regular McDonald's but it was 2 stories and had a play place and arcade.
Grandpa was brave and drove the Grandpamobile to McDonald's. The drive there was fine, but when I went to get my kids out of the car at Gary's house my dad looked like he was going to die. Luke screamed the entire time. So from then on I couldn't ride in a car without Luke.
On Tuesday morning we got up bright and early to go to Universal Studios. I was a little worried about being there with 3 kids without Isaac to help. But everyone was great and helped out a lot. Grandma Sugar hadn't been feeling well for a few weeks. She had diarrhea and the doctors couldn't really figure out why it wasn't going away. She was supposed to get some medicine before our trip, but due to insurance difficulties it didn't happen. So she was really weak and had lost a lot of weight. We convinced her that she needed a wheelchair at the park (and it was a good things we did because she never would have made it without one).
Kevin was really funny pushing Grandma around. I think he missed his calling in life working with geriatrics or disabled people.
Sophie was just barely tall enough to go on every ride at Universal Studios. But Aspen was too short to go on quite a few of them. And Luke was only able to go on 2 or 3 rides.
The first thing we did at Universal Studios was go to the Diagon Alley section of Harry Potter. Back in the summer when we decided to go on this trip, I was worried the kids wouldn't enjoy Universal Studios because it is geared more for older kids. So I decided to start reading the Harry Potter books with the girls so they could at least enjoy that part of the park. I thought it would take from August until our trip to finish the 1st Harry Potter book. But they (especially Sophie) loved the books and we read the first 3 books. We could have gone further, but I wanted them to wait until they are a little older to read the rest because they are a little scarier. We would read a chapter or so in the book and then watch that 5 min. section of the corresponding movie. The first movie follows the book very well and this was a great way to get them excited about it.
So it was really cool to see Sophie's face as we walked into Diagon Alley. One of the first things you see is the Gringot's Bank with a giant dragon on top of it. We just happened to be standing under the dragon when it suddenly shot flames out of it's mouth (apparently it goes off every 20 mins or so). Kevin screamed like a girl, and Sophie dropped flat to the ground. It was hilarious.
Then we went to Olivander's Wand Shop so Sophie and Aspen could pick out a wand. We were the first in line and really hoping they would choose Sophie for the wand choosing, but they picked Peter instead. He did a great job (I think the Sophie would have been too scared to be in front of everyone like that anyway). (Thanks to Gary for the awesome discount on the wands and other souvenirs!)
We then did the Gringot's ride. Universal Studios has a great parent-swap set up. I was able to take Luke through the whole line with me, then we waited in a room at the front of the line while everyone else went on the ride. When they came out they stayed with Luke while I rode the ride. It took a while to swap like that, but it was better than the Magic Kingdom way. Sophie didn't like that ride because it was too scary. But I thought it was really cool. The goblins at the front were really cool. And there was an elevator ride to take us into the vaults that was really cool.
The girls tried their wands on a few of the interactive window displays, but we didn't spend too much time on this because everyone else wanted to go on rides.
Then we went to Platform 9 3/4 to ride the Hogwarts Express to the castle and Hogsmead. The part where you have to walk through the invisible barrier was really cool as we watched the people in front of us disappear. Then we got on the Hogwarts Express. We watched the little presentation as we traveled and ate Berry Bott's Every Flavor Beans (really just Jelly Belly's).
Since the Hogsmead section in Florida is the same as in California, I had already seen it before, but it was really cool to see everyone else's faces as they saw the castle. We then went and rode the Forbidden Journey ride. Aspen was too short for this one, so she stayed in parent swap with Luke. But they were still able to go through the entire line through the castle, which is really cool.
We also took a break to enjoy some butterbeer.
Then we went to ride the Jurassic Park ride. Isaac thought this would be too scary for the girls, but he wasn't there so I took them on it anyway. They were terrified. Haha. The ride was fine at first when you float along looking at the cool dinosaurs. Then it starts getting a little scarier. I think Sophie was starting to realize "something was wrong" as we started going up the ramp with the scary velociraptors. I think Aspen was still confused at this point. But then we dropped down the big drop, the girl's faces were pure terror. We all were laughing our heads off when we saw that picture--and we knew we had to get it. (Fortunately Gary had a cool pass that allowed us to get all the photos for free!)
At this point we split up--Gary took my kids and the little kids to ride the kid rides in Dr. Seuss Land. And Sarah took the rest of us to ride some of the bigger rides. We were almost finished with the King Kong ride when it broke down. We had to sit in the bus for a long time, but we had a great view of King Kong. Eventually they had to get us all out of the ride, but we all got a front of the line pass. Score!
When we got back together Grandma was dying. She hadn't been drinking all day, and I was the only one who brought water bottles. So she was laying on a bench and I went to a concession stand to get ice and water. I forced her and everyone else to drink. And we re-filled my 3 water bottles at least 3 times before people were hydrated again. We did a few more rides and went back to Gary's house for dinner.
On Wednesday morning Isaac and Jason arrived from their red-eye flight. Jason looked hammered and was a zombie walking around Magic Kingdom. We were a little late getting to the park and getting Grandma's wheel chair. The "big kids" all went to ride Space Mountain while my parents and my family went to ride the Seven Dwarfs roller coaster. It was the first ride and the line was already 60+ minutes. The worst part was that we couldn't keep Luke in line with us and swap him at the front like we did at Universal Studios. So my parents offered to watch him while we took the girls on the ride.
I was worried about the line length before the trip, so I packed a few games to play in line. This worked for a while, but by the time we got on the ride the girls were tired of standing. (Even though we had a stroller, I swear I carried a kid the entire day at Universal Studios and Magic Kingdom.) The roller coaster was actually pretty cool and a lot longer than I expected.
Then we met up with everyone and went on the Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise (where our tour guide told the lamest jokes), and Pirates of the Caribbean. We stopped for a lunch of another meat sandwich before going on Splash Mountain.
Sarah got our family fast passes for a few rides. It was really nice to have someone along who knew the layout of the park and the best way to use the fast passes.
We did a few more rides and were in line for a Monsters Inc. comedy show. I was having fun playing a "would you rather" game with the kids (Little Gary was hilarious) when Sophie and Aspen had to go to the bathroom. So I had to run out and rush them to the nearest bathroom. Unfortunately we got locked out of the show and couldn't go in with everyone else. But when they came out Isaac said it was awesome and we had to see it. So everyone else went to another ride while we did that one again. It was really cool. It was a live animated comedy show. The characters from the movie interacted with audience members in real time, and it's different every time. Our show was hilarious because they called on a mom to say her name, but her little boy called her out as a liar. So they made fun of her lying the whole time.
By this time we were all getting tired, so we rode the Merry Go Round and went home.
This was Isaac's first time at a Disney park, and he was kind of disappointed. There really wasn't much "Disney" stuff around. Sure there were people wearing Mickey ears, and you could wait in line to meet the princesses, but most of the rides had nothing to do with Disney movies our kids are familiar with. And it was crazy crowded. The longest line we waited in at Universal Studios was 25 mins. But Disney was packed (it could have been because we went on the only day that week when we didn't need a special Mickey's Christmas ticket that was more expensive). But it was nice to have Gary and Sarah there to show us around. I still felt like we missed a lot of stuff, but without them we probably would have wandered around aimlessly all day without going on any rides because we didn't want to stand in line.
On Thursday we went to Gator Land. At first we just walked around and looked at various sizes of alligators. The kids thought they were really cool.
Then we went to their gator wrestling show. Although the gators they used were fairly small, around 5 feet, they still weighed around 200 lbs. Those guys were crazy. But they put on a really funny show that we really enjoyed.
We also went in a bird cage where you could hold a stick with seeds and the birds would land on you. The kids were so excited when they "caught" a bird.
Then we went for a walk around a swamp. And saw a gator feeding show. It was a lot of fun and nice to have a more relaxed day.
We then went back to Gary's house and my Aunt Debbie, Uncle Jim, and cousin Rebecca came over for dinner. They are serving their mission in Florida and were in Orlando to pick Rebecca up from the airport. Sarah made a weird Japanese dish with rice, eggs, and chicken for dinner. It was good to catch up with them a little.
On Friday we went to Universal Studios again, since Isaac and Jason missed it the first time we went. This time we first went on the Gringot's ride. Isaac really liked it. Then we split up and my family and Grandma and Grandpa stayed in Harry Potter to use our wands while everyone else did some larger roller coasters. Isaac doesn't really like roller coasters, so he had fun seeing the girls using their magic wands.
Isaac also took the kids to the pet shop so they could buy their owls. They had been talking about getting owls in Florida for months. Throughout the time we read the Harry Potter books they loved Hedwig and really wanted their own pet owl.
Then we did the Mummy ride. I didn't think Isaac would like it, but he really did. Apparently he can handle roller coasters in the dark when he can't see how high he is. Gary got us these really cool front of the line passes, so we were able to skip to the front almost the whole day.
Then we took the Hogwarts express to the other side of the park and did the Hippogrif roller coaster and Forbidden Journey. We all had lunch together at the Three Broomsticks.
Then we went to a live show about Sinbad. My family decided to sit in the splash zone, but my parents and Gary's family didn't want to. At first Daniel was sitting with us, but there were explosions every once in a while and he was terrified.
Then we went to a walk-through experience. I thought it was pretty cool and we had a really good tour guide. She was really funny and made the whole experience. But apparently it really scared Sophie and she didn't like it at all.
Then we split up again while the big kids went to larger rides and I took the little kids to Dr. Seuss Land.
We then tried to do the Jurassic Park ride, but it was temporarily closed. So we went back to Harry Potter to see the light show at Hogwarts. This show was incredible. Somehow they projected lights onto the castle to make it look like things were moving. Really cool.
It was almost time for the park to close, so we stopped at Jurassic Park one more time before leaving and it had just opened again. Aspen didn't want to go on it again. And Isaac guilted Sophie into going, but she really didn't want to. She sat next to me and started crying as soon as our boat started moving. I felt really bad for her because she was so scared. Poor girl.
Then we stopped at Burger King for dinner on our way home.
After another exhausting flight, but Luke finally fell asleep the last hour of the trip, we made it home. It was a really fun trip and good to spend time with my family and visit with Gary. We really enjoyed Universal Studios and would probably do things a little differently with Disney next time. It was very kind of Gary to let us stay with him for such a long time. Next time remember to bring drink mixes for water, because the water out their is nasty. And it was hard not having access to my own snacks and meal times, but that's tricky when you fly somewhere and can't bring a lot with you. But hopefully we can come visit again in a few years.
No comments:
Post a Comment