The Darling Family June 2010 Trip Report: When are the Parents Showing Up?11/5 New TR

[DrMomof3]

Wow! What a busy day. You got so much done in such a short time! Universal looks interesting but it would take some convincing!!!

Amanda

 

[claryche]

I'm loving hearing about Islands of Adventure. We plan on trying to hold off going there until my DS has at least seen the first Harry Potter movie. Don't know what age is best for that for sure though.

I agree with you about once you are wet, why not ride it over and over. On our last trip my Mom rode Kali 5 times in a row. She loved it. So she also agrees with us.

 

[wdwgirl03]

Great Universal updates! I think Seussland is my favorite part of IOA outside of WWOHP. The theming is really great. I just love all the colors and the architecture.

You are so right about Universal not lacking places to get wet. When we went a few years ago with the the whole family my mom kept saying how Universal's favorite things must be fire and water. Of course this is coming from someone who doesn't even really like the little squirts of water on some rides.

 

[dismagiclover]

Goodness gracious! You guys really did get wet. I imagine you were quite squishy after riding three times.

Poor Michael, he just doesn't care too much for characters when he's tired does he? At least you got pictures of him getting friendly with Thing 1 and Thing 2.

Michael can definitely be a bit moody. And when he decides he is done then he is done. I thought it was funny that he found Thing 1 and Thing 2 worthy though. Which did allow us to get some great pictures of his friendliness

That storytime thing is so great!! I wonder if they do different Seuss books? Definitely something to stop for next time-- never knew it existed!

The backdrop is for the Places you Go so that probaby means that is the one they usually do. Who knows though. Maybe they have other backdrops they pull out for different shows.

Wow! What a busy day. You got so much done in such a short time! Universal looks interesting but it would take some convincing!!!

Amanda

Universal was lots of fun, but it definitely has not replaced Disney in my heart.

I'm loving hearing about Islands of Adventure. We plan on trying to hold off going there until my DS has at least seen the first Harry Potter movie. Don't know what age is best for that for sure though.

I agree with you about once you are wet, why not ride it over and over. On our last trip my Mom rode Kali 5 times in a row. She loved it. So she also agrees with us.

The first Harry Potter movie isn't very scary. My youngest saw it when he was 5. They progressively get scarier and even my 10 year old hasn't seen all of them. (Granted she gets scared easily.) I think it just depends on the kid. The area wouldn't be near as cool if you weren't familiar with the movies and books. Your mom sounds like a smart woman

Great Universal updates! I think Seussland is my favorite part of IOA outside of WWOHP. The theming is really great. I just love all the colors and the architecture.

You are so right about Universal not lacking places to get wet. When we went a few years ago with the the whole family my mom kept saying how Universal's favorite things must be fire and water. Of course this is coming from someone who doesn't even really like the little squirts of water on some rides.

Seuss Landing was definitely my favorite part of IOA outside of Harry Potter. Just so cute and colorful. Plus I've loved those books since I was a kid. I wonder what Universal does with all of those water rides during the winter. I can't imagine them being too popular in January.

 

[dismagiclover]

By the time we were cleaned up from our swim it was time for dinner. We headed down to the restaurant at our resort and ate there. We really enjoyed it. They had a buffet for the kids. DH and I ordered off the menu. They even had a belly dancer. It was uncrowded and made for a very relaxing meal. Much better than our lunch at the park. So after dinner we headed back over to Islands of Adventure. I was hoping WWOHP might be cleared out a bit and we’d be able to get in some of the stores. We stopped at the Christmas shop on the way into the park where they had some great Grinch themed merchandise.

I picked up this ornament

On our way back to Harry Potter I snapped this picture of the kids in front of Dudley Do Right’s Ripsaw Falls. I tried to talk them into taking a ride, but I didn’t get any takers.

We finally made it over to the snow covered roofs of Hogsmeade.

The area was even more crowded than it had been that morning.

So we just kept walking. We came upon a bookstore in Seuss Landing that sells all of Dr. Seuss’ books.

At this point John kept bugging us about wanting to buy a teddy bear he’d seen at Men in Black the day before. So we decided to head over to the other park. We headed straight towards the MIB gift shop, but figured since we were there we should take a ride. Here is my very blurry redneck ride picture.

John got his teddy bear.

It was getting close to closing time, but I talked DH into riding the Simpson’s Ride on the way out. I was curious to hear what it was. We waited on a bench outside while DH rode the ride. He said it was OK, but that it definitely would make me nauseous. I’d suspected that. Anyway at this point the boys were tired and wanted to go back to the hotel. DH wanted to see the Hogwarts castle at night so he took Wendy and they hoofed it back to Islands of Adventure. (They got plenty of walking in this day.) DH took a couple of shots that didn’t turn out real well.

He said it was even more crowded (if that is possible.) He also said the castle wasn’t as cool as he was hoping it would be. Anyway so much for the idea it would be less crowded in the evening. Everyone settled into bed. Another early wakeup was ahead of us. The next day would be our last in Orlando.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Holy moley! The crowds in the Harry Potter section of the park were craaaazy! I wonder how long it will continue to be that crowded? We're still pondering either a visit to Univeral or Sea World next year.

 

[mermaid764]

I love the theming in the Dr.Seuss are...too neat.

Those are some crazy crowds at WWOHP. I can see why the hour early for hotel guests is such a great perk.

So sad that it is almost your last day, but hopefully your last day was amazing

 

[Angies1274]

Aww...Seuss Landing looks so cute!! It looks like you had such a fun time!!

Wow! I can't get over how great that express pass sounds!! You were able to get so much done!

Love all the pictures with the characters....so cute!!

I can't believe those crowds at WWOHP!! Crazy!!!

 

[klacey1]

That MIB bear is adorable! Love the sunglasses-- glad your dinner was better than lunch!

 

[reelmom]

The kids were smart passing on Ripsaw Falls. It is quite fast and very wet. I thought my son was going to pass out right before the big drop. I was too worried about him to be scared but I don't think I would ride it again.

 

[claryche]

This is totally off topic. But I saw your son wearing this shirt previously in your trip report and thought I would say something. My son has the same shirt. We got it of course when we went to visit Washington DC. Which totally makes sense, since you guys live close to there. Of course I always see Disney shirts on other little boys on DIS that my son has, but this is the first for a different shirt.

Here is a picture of my DS in the shirt, old picture, over 2 years old. But still, thought I would share.

Sorry that your trip report is coming to an end. I'm sure not as sorry as you guys were when you were getting close to the end of your trip.

 

[dismagiclover]

Holy moley! The crowds in the Harry Potter section of the park were craaaazy! I wonder how long it will continue to be that crowded? We're still pondering either a visit to Univeral or Sea World next year.

This was the week right after opening so the crowds were huge! I bet they've calmed down quite a bit, though I haven't been following reports so I don't know for sure.

I love the theming in the Dr.Seuss are...too neat.

Those are some crazy crowds at WWOHP. I can see why the hour early for hotel guests is such a great perk.

So sad that it is almost your last day, but hopefully your last day was amazing

That hour early entry was a lifesaver! We would never have been able to enjoy it near as much! Last day coming up. All vacations must come to an end, but then it's time for the trip report to begin

Aww...Seuss Landing looks so cute!! It looks like you had such a fun time!!

Wow! I can't get over how great that express pass sounds!! You were able to get so much done!

Love all the pictures with the characters....so cute!!

I can't believe those crowds at WWOHP!! Crazy!!!

The Express Pass is a major perk! Makes staying on property completely worth it! The character pictures are cute. Universal had lots of characters, but my kids weren't really into posing with most of them. I suppose by this point in the trip they were charactered out.

That MIB bear is adorable! Love the sunglasses-- glad your dinner was better than lunch!

It better be a cute bear. We went way out of our way to get it

The kids were smart passing on Ripsaw Falls. It is quite fast and very wet. I thought my son was going to pass out right before the big drop. I was too worried about him to be scared but I don't think I would ride it again.

They don't really like Splash Mountain so it sounds like it was a good thing we skipped it.

This is totally off topic. But I saw your son wearing this shirt previously in your trip report and thought I would say something. My son has the same shirt. We got it of course when we went to visit Washington DC. Which totally makes sense, since you guys live close to there. Of course I always see Disney shirts on other little boys on DIS that my son has, but this is the first for a different shirt.

Here is a picture of my DS in the shirt, old picture, over 2 years old. But still, thought I would share.

Sorry that your trip report is coming to an end. I'm sure not as sorry as you guys were when you were getting close to the end of your trip.

That is funny! My in-laws picked up the shirt from a street vendor on one of their visits here. As you can tell John loves it! Your son is adorable

 

[dismagiclover]

We were up early again. We wanted to take advantage of that hour in WWOHP before the general public went in. We’d learned a bit from the day before and had a different plan for this day. We decided to hit the stores first. Then we figured we’d walk through the castle and ride the Forbidden Journey again. We headed over to Islands of Adventure and arrived there around 7:45. After showing our room key we headed to the right, but we were quickly stopped by a huge line up of people that stretched back into Seuss Landing. The day before we’d arrived about this time and they were already letting people into WWOHP. Not this day. We stood in the line until 8:00 when they started letting people in. As we passed through the gates they announced the Forbidden Journey ride was down, but the castle was still open. That probably explains why they didn’t let people in earlier. They were trying to get the ride up. This didn’t foil our plans, however. I headed straight for Honeydukes (the candy store) and DH took the kids to Dervish and Bangs (the kids knew the stuffed Hedwigs were there.) Honeydukes was empty. In fact the salesperson even asked if I would like some help. I told him I was looking for Bertie Botts and he pointed these out.

I also wanted Chocolate Frogs.

I picked up a few things and headed to the cash register. The clerk asked me where I’d found both the Chocolate Frogs and the Bertie Botts. She said they’d been sold out for 3 days. I guess they’d restocked the night before. Must have been Magic! Anyway here are my purchases.

Though I think I picked up another box of Bertie Botts before I actually paid. This was not cheap candy. I think the total was over $20. I guess you have to pay for Magical candy. Here is the card that was in the chocolate frog and a shot of the chocolate frog (Those are ice crystals on it. It was in the freezer for a while.) When we finally ate it we discovered it's not very good chocolate.

Here is a picture of the Bertie Botts.

These were tasty. They didn’t have the really gross kinds like boogers and vomit, but they did have salmon, sausage and pepper. To be honest they aren’t much different than Jelly Bellies, but they are more fun because they are Bertie Botts.

After making my purchases I hustled over find the rest of my family. Wendy and Michael had found just what they were looking for.

Those are pretty adorable aren’t they? Here they are by themselves

John was kind of wishing he could have one, but I reminded him he chose the MIB stuffed bear the night before. I guess these owls were hot commodities as well. They’d been sold out for several days before. Another bit of Magic that they were there for us. Lots of fun details in this store. Here is the Book of Monsters. This book is so dangerous it is in a locked cage.

Some more details.

After buying the owls the kids wanted to go check out Honeydukes. I took some pictures of the Honeydukes display windows.

There were a few more people in the store, but we still just walked right in.

The picture shows how small this place really is. Connected to Honeydukes is Zonko’s (the joke store.) This place is tiny.

Here is some of the merchandise.

These stores really were cool. They only sold authentic merchandise. Nothing that had Wizarding World of Harry Potter emblazoned on it in Honeydukes or Zonko’s. Just merchandise that would be sold in the stores in the books. It was a neat touch and really gave it a feel of authenticity. I don’t think it stopped anyone from opening their wallets either. I really hope they strive to keep these stores authentic and don’t feel the need to introduce WWOHP key chains and t-shirts. Find somewhere else to sell them. Anyway we decided to mozy on over to the castle to walk through the queue again. On our way we passed Olivander’s (the wand shop).

This is really the only part of the WWOHP that I would have liked to do that we didn’t. The line here was super long. They let about 25 people into the shop at a time and only one of them is chosen to get a wand. It just didn’t seem worth it. When we go back in a few years hopefully it won’t be as hard to experience. They had a cart up by the castle that sold wands so if you were interested there was still a place to buy wands. Anyway we headed over toward the castle. How long would we have to wait?

 

[claryche]

That is funny! My in-laws picked up the shirt from a street vendor on one of their visits here. As you can tell John loves it! Your son is adorable

Thank you. We got it from a street vendor also.

I love the shops. So cute and authentic. From an earlier post, as far as when to let my DS watch Harry Potter. I'm hoping that we can start letting him watch at least the first one when he is like 7 maybe. But just recently a Scooby Doo show scared him. But yet he will watch Star Ware -Clone Wars with no problem. Kids, you just can't figure them out.

 

[praisehisname]

Wow, you really did get wet on that ride! You raised a good point--I wonder what they do in winter? Can they "turn down" the splash?

They didn’t have the really gross kinds like boogers and vomit, but they did have salmon, sausage and pepper.

Ewwww, I can't imagine eating those flavors of jellybeans! Kids probably love it, though!

These stores really were cool. They only sold authentic merchandise. Nothing that had Wizarding World of Harry Potter emblazoned on it in Honeydukes or Zonko’s. Just merchandise that would be sold in the stores in the books. It was a neat touch and really gave it a feel of authenticity.

I can't remember if I heard it on the podcast or read it here on your report ( ), but apparently J.K. Rowling insisted that the shops be as authentic as possible. That is why they are so small, too.

 

[klacey1]

I love that the merchandise is authentic! That's really neat. Definitely heard from more than one person that the chocolate isn't really great to eat haha.

 

[Planning fanatic mom]

Thank you so much for the detailed description of WWOHP. My DD and I are huge fans of the books. It looks so great! I really need to get there.

Doesn't look like it will be any time soon.

Can't wait to here more!

 

[dismagiclover]

Thank you. We got it from a street vendor also.

I love the shops. So cute and authentic. From an earlier post, as far as when to let my DS watch Harry Potter. I'm hoping that we can start letting him watch at least the first one when he is like 7 maybe. But just recently a Scooby Doo show scared him. But yet he will watch Star Ware -Clone Wars with no problem. Kids, you just can't figure them out.

Kids and what scares them seems to make no sense sometimes Each kid is different. You'll figure out when is best for your son. My oldest (she's 10) still can't read the Harry Potter books before bed.

Wow, you really did get wet on that ride! You raised a good point--I wonder what they do in winter? Can they "turn down" the splash?
They must do something. No one would ride if they always got that wet.

Ewwww, I can't imagine eating those flavors of jellybeans! Kids probably love it, though!
My boys went to a Harry Potter party last weekend where they got Bertie Botts that had some of the real gross flavors like Boogers. I didn't dare try any of them.

I can't remember if I heard it on the podcast or read it here on your report ( ), but apparently J.K. Rowling insisted that the shops be as authentic as possible. That is why they are so small, too.

I've heard that as well. It's probably true because I'm sure Universal would like as much retail space as they could get if they were in charge of the design.

I love that the merchandise is authentic! That's really neat. Definitely heard from more than one person that the chocolate isn't really great to eat haha.

Definitely not premium chocolate (though you do pay premium prices)

Thank you so much for the detailed description of WWOHP. My DD and I are huge fans of the books. It looks so great! I really need to get there.

Doesn't look like it will be any time soon.

Can't wait to here more!

I hope you get there sooner rather than later. It's a great place. Though i you wait long enough the crowds will probably be lower.

 

[wdwgirl03]

Yay for going back to WWOHP! The stores are SO tiny but it is cool how they sell the authentic merchandise. We loved the chocolate frogs. But you are right, they are not cheap! The Hedwigs the kids got are so cute!

 

[dismagiclover]

Yay for going back to WWOHP! The stores are SO tiny but it is cool how they sell the authentic merchandise. We loved the chocolate frogs. But you are right, they are not cheap! The Hedwigs the kids got are so cute!

Nothing at WWOHP was cheap, but we all seem willing to open our wallets I love those Hedwigs. May be one of the cutest stuffed animals ever!