FINISHED! 7/2 The magic (and not-so-magic) memories Jan29-Feb4 Disney/Universal

[sarahcor]

Weren't the crowds crazy ?? I found that if you go in the evening .. it's much better .. but I won't find that out until our second Universal day.

My boys had very little interest in Suess Landing .. even though they LOVE the books .. we sort of just breezed by it all !
I really do want to go back again and do it all at a slower pace !

The crowds in Wizarding World were ridiculous! We didn't even try to get in the shops, they were packed. I want to go back too. I've heard the closed Jaws attraction in Islands of Adventure is going to be Wizarding World part 2, that would be very cool. Maybe when Westin is older and I can convince Mia to try Forbidden Journey. I made the mistake of telling her there were spiders and she refused to ride after she knew that.

 

[Moodyzblu]

The crowds in Wizarding World were ridiculous! We didn't even try to get in the shops, they were packed. I want to go back too. I've heard the closed Jaws attraction in Islands of Adventure is going to be Wizarding World part 2, that would be very cool. Maybe when Westin is older and I can convince Mia to try Forbidden Journey. I made the mistake of telling her there were spiders and she refused to ride after she knew that.

I know .. there was like an hour wait just to get IN the stores then once you get in you can't move because it's SO crowded in there.

There were spiders ?? I had my eyes closed through most of it .. I must have missed the spiders.

 

[sarahcor]

I know .. there was like an hour wait just to get IN the stores then once you get in you can't move because it's SO crowded in there.

There were spiders ?? I had my eyes closed through most of it .. I must have missed the spiders.

I think one of them spit on me! At least I felt water from somewhere.

 

[Moodyzblu]

I think one of them spit on me! At least I felt water from somewhere.

OMG you're probably right !! So, that's where the water came from ?? I told you I had my eyes closed ! It's all pretty much a blur.

 

[sarahcor]

OMG you're probably right !! So, that's where the water came from ?? I told you I had my eyes closed ! It's all pretty much a blur.

I only got to ride it once. There was so much to see, I really wish I would have ridden a few more times. Oh well...there's always next time!

 

[sarahcor]

So, Paul had caught the flu from me. He was up off and on throughout the night and was feeling pretty awful.

I was getting the backpack ready when I realized I had done something horrible. The ring I had gotten earlier at Epcot, I had taken off my other ring and wrapped it up in a napkin. I then stuck it in the backpack for safe keeping. Well, I totally forgot about it and when I had cleaned the backpack out a few days prior I had thrown all the napkins out too. I threw out my girlfriend ring!

BOO-HOO! I started to cry and was so upset. Paul had given me the ring when we became girlfriend/boyfriend and I had worn it for ten years. Dumb me! It now has a home wherever the Pop trash goes.

After recovering from the ring incident we said goodbye to Paul and got on our way to Harry Potter. I had seen it but didn’t get to ride it the day before.

A few store windows, they are so detailed.

Before riding we made a stop at the wand store. None of us had any interest in waiting for the wand show so we went directly in the wand shop and got our wands that way.

Mia got Harry’s wand and we decided to get Paul the Sirius Black wand.

The store had a bunch of wands to choose from. The staff was very helpful with Mia, she was having trouble deciding which to go with.

Wands at the ready, Bridget and I went to ride The Forbidden Journey!

 

[sarahcor]

I really liked the que, I think I liked it more than the ride. I felt like I was at Hogwarts, it was so realistic. The ride was pretty cool too. I was slightly disoriented from switching between the screen/video and then the real, set type parts of the ride. The part I remember the most was with the whomping willow, I thought it was going to hit my leg.

I wish I could have ridden a few more times but we had other things to do. Also, I was feeling this ride for a while after. I was dizzy and starting to get a headache, when I get back for my next visit I will definitely bring some Dramamine.

Mia and I were hungry so we checked out The Three Broomsticks.

Mia was nice enough to get my picture with Harry and Hermione’s wizard ball outfits.

Is it bad to wear a Disney shirt at Universal? The only time someone commented was in the elevator at the hotel. A bell boy was in the elevator with me. He told me I better watch out with a shirt like that, I could get beat up! Then he laughed and said just kidding.

The theming in here was great. As we were in line in walks my Uncle, Aunt and cousins. My Aunt and I had talked about meeting up, but I didn’t expect to run right into them. We ate our breakfast with them. Mia, Westin and I split the pancake platter, it was good. We decided we would tour together.

Zoe and Mia are one year apart. Zoe is not a big fan of thrill rides and Mia loves Dr. Seuss, so off to the Seuss part of the park again.

We ran into this guy.

This is my cousin Zack, Uncle Matt, Grinch, cousin Zoe, Mia and cousin Shelby.

I don’t remember his name, but Mia was super excited to see him.

Westin was also excited to meet him.

The character interaction with the Seuss characters was great. There was also no one else waiting to meet them which was nice, we didn't feel rushed at all.

 

[Moodyzblu]

Is it bad to wear a Disney shirt at Universal? The only time someone commented was in the elevator at the hotel. A bell boy was in the elevator with me. He told me I better watch out with a shirt like that, I could get beat up! Then he laughed and said just kidding.


I don’t remember his name, but Mia was super excited to see him.

Westin was also excited to meet him.

We wore Disney shirts on our second day of Universal ! Spiderman even signed them.

That is Sam I Am !!
We didn't see ANY Suess characters when we were there.

 

[sarahcor]

We wore Disney shirts on our second day of Universal ! Spiderman even signed them.

That is Sam I Am !!
We didn't see ANY Suess characters when we were there.

We must have been there at the perfect time. We met 3 more before we left the Seuss part.

 

[sarahcor]

We went in a little store and these guys were sitting inside.

Mia and Zoe were paying attention to the Cat in the Hat and Thing 2. Thing 1 was sad and he fell over.

Thing 2 snuck over and started to tickle Thing 1 and motioned for the girls to join in.

Mia loved this meet!

Mia convinced Zoe to do One Fish, Two Fish with her. Zoe was scared because of the shooting water so Mia volunteered to sit on the outside of the fish.

Zoe ended up really liking it.

We then did the cat in the hat couch ride, kind of like Winnie the Pooh. It was really cute. Then we did the High in the Sky trolley. That was a cute little ride too, with a nice view of the Seuss area.

Oh, I forgot, before we went to the Seuss rides we did do the Dragon Duel and Flight of the Hippogriff. Well, I rode Dragon Duel with Aunt Linda, no one else was up for it. We all did Hippogriff while Uncle Matt sat out with Westin.

Next we tried the Jurassic Park ride. The child switch worked really great. They had little areas off to the entrance area and we would wait there for the rest of the group. When they exited somebody stayed behind with the kids and everybody rode again. The team members didn’t say anything about our large group riding twice. It was like fastpass times two.

With Paul being sick at the hotel I didn’t use the camera a lot. I really regret that now. We were all hungry so we stayed at the dinosaur land part and ate in Thunder Falls Terrace. After lunch Mia wanted to try Pteranodon Flyers but the wait was 45 minutes so we passed on that.

Our last ride at Islands of Adventure was Spiderman. I thought this was a good ride. There was one part where it felt like you were falling. Again, I wish I had ridden it more than once.

I had told Paul I would check on him. Mia and Westin stayed at the park with Uncle Matt and Aunt Linda while I started back to Hard Rock. Halfway there I realized my ticket was in the backpack, which I had left in the stroller. I called Aunt Linda and they were on their way to Universal Studios so I walked to meet them so I could grab my ticket.

 

[sarahcor]

I got some Sprite on the walk back to the hotel. I hadn’t been able to find any pop machines at the hotel but today I got lucky and found the “grocery” store at Hard Rock. It was on the bottom level and we hadn’t paid any attention to it. Close to the pool. They had overpriced Cheerios, nothing else looked good for someone who was feeling sick. I grabbed 2 bowls of Cheerios for Paul.

He was feeling a lot better but not well enough to come to the park. I told him we’d be back before dinner.

I called Aunt Linda, they had just finished the Shrek 4d ride and were on the way to do Simpsons. Rats, I had wanted to try Shrek too. Mia was not a fan of Shrek, the seats moved up and down and it had biting spiders. At least, that is what she told me. I think it was too similar to Bugs Life, which she is terrified of.

The Jaws ride had been closed for a few weeks already. I had read that the Jaws ride was dated but I would have like to try it anyways.

I met up with everybody else at the Simpsons ride.

Bridget had stayed off with Zoe and Westin.

Mia liked the Simpsons ride, it didn’t scare her at all.

We did Men In Black next. I really like this one. I think it was way better than Buzz Lightyear. The guns are not attached to the vehicle, you can turn and point anywhere you want. With the child swap we rode this 3 times in a row.

We were able to convince Mia and Zoe to try it. They thought it would be scary, with aliens popping out from everywhere. I explained to Mia that it looked fake, the aliens were like cardboard cut-outs and were only there for you to shoot. She was glad she tried it.

I had to pull my camera out for this guy! There were two mummy guys walking around on stilts. They didn’t talk, they would just stare at you.

There was an Egyptian lady walking around too.

She pretended to pick stuff out of a lady’s hair. She didn’t speak either.

Unfortunately, Mummy was down for a while so we decided to do Beetlejuice’s Graveyard Revue to pass the time. I liked the show, it had some adult humor but it went over Mia’s head. She was scared to do this too, she thought it was a ride. We sat in the back of the theatre so we could escape if it was scary. She loved it! She is in dance and there is a lot of dance in this show. Dancing, singing and Beetlejuice told jokes. My only complaint was that it was sooo loud.

We checked on Revenge of the Mummy and it was open! All but the kids and Rob rode Mummy. I really liked this ride/roller coaster a lot! We rode 3 times. The first part was different scenes and then it shot you fast and the roller coaster part was towards the end. I can’t really describe it, but I really liked it.

 

[Moodyzblu]

My boys rode the Mummy ride !! It was intense. I'm not sure I would ride it again .. But may be forced to when we go back.

I would have loved to ride Jaws before they it for good. The boys were disappointed it was a closed as well.

Wonder what they are putting there ?

 

[sarahcor]

My boys rode the Mummy ride !! It was intense. I'm not sure I would ride it again .. But may be forced to when we go back.

I would have loved to ride Jaws before they it for good. The boys were disappointed it was a closed as well.

Wonder what they are putting there ?

I can't wait to ride it again, I really liked it. As for the Jaws replacement, I have read some rumors about the second phase of Harry Potter going there. That would be cool!

 

[Moodyzblu]

I can't wait to ride it again, I really liked it. As for the Jaws replacement, I have read some rumors about the second phase of Harry Potter going there. That would be cool!

YES .. that WOULD be cool !!

 

[sarahcor]

We caught the end of the Blues Brother show. Mia loves Despicable Me, we saw a cart that had minion (the little yellow guys) shirts. She got one and we got one for Paul too. She immediately ripped the tags off and switched her shirt right there. We tried to be discreet, I’m sure no one noticed.

A lovely picture of the cousins, we were all getting tired at this point!

I had to get some pictures with the Delorean.

Back to the Future was one of the first vhs tapes we ever had. My dad had taped it off of HBO and my sister and I watched it over and over.

And the train! How perfect, we always loved Back to the Future parts one and three, but hated two. The second movie was dark and scary, I only like the part where Michael J. Fox plays Marty, the son and daughter too.

Dancing in the streets.

Ever since Mia was young she hated E.T. We watched the movie and she didn’t get scared watching the movie but after we would hold our pointer finger out and say E.T. phone home, in our best E.T. voice. This is what made her hate E.T. To this day I can still point my finger at her and say E.T. and she will begin to get a look of fear in her eyes. Is that a form of child abuse?

Anyways, she absolutely refused to ride E.T. It was kind of like Peter Pan in the sense that you are flying over things. As soon as the ride started it reminded me of something. I couldn’t put my finger on it until almost the end when I realized. The smell of the ride reminded me of the YMCA pool. Chlorine, a lot of chlorine. That is one ride I don’t need to ride again, I wasn’t impressed.

Scooby! Shaggy was a very questionable Shaggy, maybe too short and too wide to by Shaggy.
While we were riding E.T., Mia and Aunt Linda went to the Woody Woodpecker coaster. Mia thought it was pretty fun, similar to Goofy’s rollercoaster.
I used the restrooms while they were riding and they were gross. There was paper and trash all through the stalls, water on the floor. Gross. Disney definitely has the best bathrooms, pretty much of anywhere.

 

[sarahcor]

We realized that we had forgotten to check on meeting Sponge Bob. It was a few minutes before 4:00 and that was his last appearance. Mia was getting crabby and decided she was skipping Sponge Bob. Oh well, I wanted to meet him too. We sure have a lot to do on a future trip!

I think I will have good luck convincing Paul to do Universal again. He said he preferred Universal more than Disney. I should have expected that coming from him. Maybe when Westin is a few years older and Mia is a few years braver!

Mia had been wanting a churro all day. We tried to get one at the Beetlejuice show but a big group had beat us to the stand and they got them all.

We were heading to the exit and saw one last churro stand. Mia was talking about how she couldn’t wait to get her churro. There was a guy in front of us and there was one churro left. I think he heard Mia talking because he got a pretzel instead. Uncle Matt thanked him and he smiled and nodded. There was some pixie dust in Universal too!

Mia ordered the last churro but surprise, there was a broken one on the bottom of the case, the clerk gave her that one too. She didn’t care and shared with Zoe.

My aunt was at the ticket window, they decided to turn their one day ticket into a two day. I didn’t know you could do that but she was trying. They wanted to have another day at Universal. Their vacation was just beginning, ours was ending.

They are DVC members and were trying to persuade us to drive to the Contemporary and watch Wishes with them in the DVC viewing area at Bay Lake. I really wanted to but I knew Paul would not be up for it. I also didn’t want to drive by myself with the kids so we passed. Another thing to do “the next time”.

We said our goodbyes to my Uncle, Aunt and cousins. I had a great time with them and was so glad we could meet up.

A picture on the way out…

Bridget, Grace and Rob were going to get some dinner at Margaritaville. With Paul being alone all day at the hotel I decided we’d go back and hang with him. I think Bridget may have been upset at us skipping on dinner but I have to keep the family happy first.

 

[Sparkly]

Great trip report Eeek at the huge amounts of stomach bugs! I must have got it too, I spent most of our trip exploring the restrooms.

We were there from Feb 9-19th and we practically had Universal Studios/IOA to ourselves too! We stayed at the Royal Pacific- we could have saved our money and just stayed at the condo! The bathrooms at Disney are definitely the cleanest. Universal ones are a little grubby but I suppose it depends on where they are.

It's a shame about the construction works meaning most shots of Cindy Castle has a crane in the background. I can't wait for the new Fantasyland expansion either! Hope some of it will be open when we go next year.

 

[sarahcor]

Great trip report Eeek at the huge amounts of stomach bugs! I must have got it too, I spent most of our trip exploring the restrooms.

We were there from Feb 9-19th and we practically had Universal Studios/IOA to ourselves too! We stayed at the Royal Pacific- we could have saved our money and just stayed at the condo! The bathrooms at Disney are definitely the cleanest. Universal ones are a little grubby but I suppose it depends on where they are.

It's a shame about the construction works meaning most shots of Cindy Castle has a crane in the background. I can't wait for the new Fantasyland expansion either! Hope some of it will be open when we go next year.

Sick on vacation is bad but sick at Disney is the worst!
Disney knows how to keep clean, especially considering the amount of people that use them, quite impressive.
The construction is an eyesore but I am so excited to see the finished product! I can't wait to see Belle's Village area.

 

[sarahcor]

On our way back to the hotel we ran into Homer in the elevators. He was too big and had to bend down to get in the elevator. Mia thought this was funny, she wondered which room he was staying in.

We ordered some pizza from the hotel and hung out for the evening.

I started the sad packing process and lugged some of the luggage to the truck so we wouldn’t have as much to do in the morning. I was preparing myself for a bad ride back, with Paul being sick I figured I’d be doing most of the 16 hour drive home.

Bridget returned from dinner and we had one last adventure, find the NSYNC display. Bridget and I were crazy for NSYNC (and still are!), we saw them numerous times in concert. I’m still waiting for their comeback tour. Since Justin Timberlake isn’t hurting for money I won’t hold my breath, I would guess he wouldn’t be interested in a reunion tour. I got some pictures of the Hard Rock lobby first.

 

[sarahcor]

We asked an employee if they knew where the NSYNC display. He wasn’t certain but knew it was at one of the main elevator areas. We picked an elevator and began stopping at each floor. It didn’t take us long before we stumbled upon what we were looking for.

JC and Lance wore these costumes in 1998, my how time flies.

We took some pictures of each other but then a nice gentleman who didn’t question our weirdness offered to take a picture for us.

After our NSYNC hunt we got some free ice cream. It was Rob’s birthday and he received a coupon for a free scoop of ice cream from the hotel ice cream shop. It was not my birthday but for some reason the hotel thought it was and I also received a coupon for some free ice cream.

Rob wasn’t hungry so Bridget used his coupon, they didn’t question her. I got my birthday ice cream too, it was just six months early! It was actually pretty good, also pretty pricey. Had I not had a coupon I would never have bought it, I think a scoop was around $5.00!

When I got back to the room Mia and Westin were sleeping. I got my shower and turned in for the night. We had a long drive ahead of us in the morning.