Day 3 Monday: We were up early, hoping to take advantage of early entry. Unfortunately, we did not time it right, and arrived at the park at 8:05. The line to get in was SO long- we went straight to Hogwarts, and by the time we got off the ride, early entry was over, and we had spent 50 minutes in line. Kinda crazy! The family rode the Dragon Challenge while I did some Christmas shopping at Honeydukes- which I had sent back to the room .
We spent couple of hours at Islands of Adventure, then went over to City Walk to use our meal vouchers. I bought the Meal and Mini golf deal, which gets you one round of mini golf and one meal ( you can choose from several different restaurants). Before we left the park we stopped by Guest services to pick up our "I'm Celebrating" buttons. (Anyone can ask for these). We wrote "Adoption-10 years" on ours. Anyway, we had a fun meal at Margaritaville, then we headed back into the park.
We went back into IOA jus to ride the Hogwarts Express- be sure to go in both directions. When we got to the turnstile, the ticket taker saw our buttons and had someone escort us up to the front of the line!
After a few more rides in Universal, it was time for us to get into place for our surprise. Phillip checked in with our "guardian angels" who had been helping us. We were at the Character spot near Mel's diner- where they periodically bring out the parade floats for a little show and meet and great time. When they came out and started dancing, one of the "minions" grabbed our daughter for a dance, which was awesome. After that, they whisked us into a side door- it looked like a unused restaurant. Our kids sat at a table (the boys were in in it), and out came Gru, Margot, Edith, and Agnes- along with a whole slew of handlers, etc. our daughter was so surprised- and after many hugs, Edith handed her our present for our girl ( a necklace and bracelet ). Our girl was so happy and overwhelmed that she started crying- and then there wasn't a dry eye in the place. What a magical, amazing time! I'm still blown away by all they did for us!
Well, it was so amazing, all we could do was go back to the room at the Royal Pacific and relax. After another "snack meal" in the club room, it was back to Diagon Alley at night. This time we spent the evening with the interactive wand- we bought the Ginny Weasley wand- and our girl and her Papa trolled around casting spells- then son 2 took a turn. Son 1 and I tried the warm butterbeers, and I have to say, it is by far my favorite! Son 2 decided he wanted some ice cream, so he went to the icecream shop by himself, where they asked him about his button- and they gave him two cups for free! Wow. Of course, we headed over to Gringotts- where the wait time was 10 minutes (as opposed to the earlier posted time of 115 !) We closed out our amazing day with fireworks as we walked out to the sounds of the Cinematic Spectacular.
TIP: if you are celebrating something, get the buttons- you'll at least get some extra smiles!
Up next: two blue kids swimming in a pool-
