Day 3 of Disney - Hollywood Studios

Today's adventure was to another Disney theme park...Disney's Hollywood Studios, aka the the theme park formerly known as MGM. This is the theme park that we spent the least amount of time in the last year we lived in Florida when we had seasonal passes, and it is most famous as being the place where Daniel fell and cut his ear open. I'm happy to report that we survived today with no injuries, and everyone's ears are safely intact. 

Arriving at the gates! We had planned to arrive at 8 a.m. when the park opened early for resort guests, but it was close to 9:30 by the time we actually arrived. We wanted to get there early to try to sign the kids up for the Jedi Training Academy, and figured after we overslept that the spots would be all gone. To our delight, they weren't full yet and we were able to still sign the kids up for later in the day! 

Posing near the park entrance. 

Selfie with Will since he is never captured in these moments. The kids weren't having it, though.

Our first Fast Pass of the day - Star Tours! This is a 3-D simulation ride with a Star Wars theme. It is a classic and the first time we had done it (actually, all three of our Fast Passes today were for rides we had never experienced). Our Star Wars fans really enjoyed it.

Next up - hopped on over to the New York area for the Muppet Vision 3D show. This is a show with 3-D effects and again, as a house full of Muppet fans, we all enjoyed it.

Posing next to the Muppet Fountain outside.

Our next Fast Pass...Indiana Jones and the Epic Stunt Spectacular! This show was a live-action theater show demonstrating all sorts of special effects. Our kids are big fan of the movies, and Daniel in particular is a huge fan of explosions, so it was another hit.

Daniel with a giant tank after the show.

Our third Fast Pass - the Great Movie Ride. We saw memorabilia and watched clips from classic movies in the lobby before the ride started, and then went on a ride around where we saw all kinds of scenes from famous movies being reenacted. It reminded me of the Small World ride, only without a boat. And no singing dolls. But a similar sized vehicle that you sat on. ;)

Getting ready to begin!

Our family is on the Quick Service Dining Plan, which means we get two meals plus one snack a day. The meals all include dessert, which is kind of ridiculous but hey, we are taking advantage of it. The best part of our food today was this absolutely delicious cupcake with Darth Vader in chocolate on top. Love all of the Star Wars theme items here!

We ran into Phineas and Ferb! The kids opted to skip standing in line to pose with the characters themselves, but did opt to take a picture by a statue of one of the show's characters.

The main attraction we remember from our previous visits to the park was the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Playground. Everything is giant-sized (play dough cans, blades of grass, spider webs, etc.), with the idea that you are very small. Annika is sadly getting a bit too old and tall for many playgrounds, but still enjoyed running around some. Daniel had a blast.

Going down the slide.

Posing on a Giant Ant.

We spent quite a bit of time this afternoon walking around and looking at the various movie sets, shops, and theme areas. I debated whether I should get this dress from Frozen and be Anna.

Or perhaps Princess Leia?

Or maybe Will should.

Storm Trooper Mickeys.

The big highlight of the afternoon was the Jedi Training Academy!! We were so thrilled that we were still able to get into this. There are around 30 kids in each session who receive "training" from Jedi Masters, and then get to practice fighting Darth Vader at the end. Daniel in particular just loved this. In fact, it was so much fun that he is plotting a Sequel for our family where he gives all of us further instruction on how to be a Jedi Master. Here he is below, learning the moves in training (Annika is to the back).

Fighting Darth Vader. Go, Daniel! His Jedi teacher gave him instructions and commented at one point, "You're very literal, aren't you?" Oh, yes. Yes, he is. ;)

Annika, fighting Darth Vader! She commented later that she didn't like taking instructions on how to fight (I think she would have preferred to just fight the Dark Side ad lib?) but still really enjoyed it.

We opted to head home this evening from the park and relax at our resort area instead. Will and Daniel went swimming in one of the thematic pools with all kinds of slides. I went swimming for a bit and then escaped to the hot tub, and then went to hang out with Annika.

Instead of swimming, Annika opted to lounge instead in a hammock and re-read one of her favorite Harry Potter books. That's my girl!

Right now, Will and the kids are enjoying an outdoor movie by the pool area, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. We walked another 15,000+ steps today, so the kids are ready to relax. Will and I commented to each other that each day of vacation we feel more and more relaxed. I know that we will be coming home to craziness with the move right around the corner, but I am so glad that we are able to just escape together during this time.

Tomorrow will be Animal Kingdom (aka "Not A Zoo"), and I'm excited to see what the day will bring. Three Cheers for Vacation!

Day 2 of Disney - Harry Potter World

Today was the much-anticipated visit to Disney's rival to visit Harry Potter World! The kids had a blast and Will and I really enjoyed it, too. I will say that Harry Potter World is a positively brilliant marketing strategy on Universal's part, given that you have to visit two theme parks (it is spread out over both Universal and Islands of Adventure) to see all of Harry Potter World - and it is essentially all a giant shopping area. But if you can ignore this, it is magical. 

To get from our Disney resort to Universal, we hired a car through Uber. Oh my goodness!! Cannot say enough good things about Uber. Lightening fast, less than half the cost of a taxi, very friendly drivers, and a super convenient app that handles all payment transactions. Huge win. 

Ready to visit Harry Potter World, aka Universal Orlando's two theme parks.

We headed straight back for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which is at Islands of Adventure. You can see Hogsmeade through the gates.

Stunning replica of Hogsmeade, down to the detail in all of the buildings and storefronts.

Our first place to enter was the famous Honeydukes.

"Gully water" may look like regular water, but it has a very special Harry Potter label. ;)

Hogwarts Castle!

This was the home of a truly wonderful ride - Harry Potter and the Forbidden Ride. I have never been on a ride quite like this and it was Annika's favorite part of our trip. It is a simulation ride where you watch a screen and your seat moves around, but you also move through on a loop (so it runs continuously). I'm not sure if any of that makes sense, but 3 out of 4 of us highly recommend it (poor Daniel was a bit overwhelmed).

The waiting area was another cool part - dragon!

The sorting hat.

Live performance involving toads, I believe.

Olivanders' Wand Shop. Very cool performance that reenacts the wand-choosing process - only 30 people can be in at the same time, and thankfully there was only around a 10 minute wait when we there. You are not allowed to use flash photography and my flash went off right as this was announced, hence the blurry picture below.

After the fact, the kids had a ball looking at wands. They have each saved their allowance for months and all of their birthday money from generous grandparents in anticipation of shopping at Harry Potter World.

Annika ended up with several items, including a Platform 9 and 3/4 shirt, and a wand set with Fred and George Weasley's wands.

Daniel spent almost all of his saved money on Gryffindor robes. And he was in heaven. Seeing his joy made me feel joyful, too.

While at the Islands of Adventure side of the parks, we also checked out the Jurassic Park area. The kids' favorite part here was an educational exhibit on dinosaurs.

 We also hit Camp Jurassic for a giant playground. They had a ride, too, that Annika was interested in, but she was unfortunately too tall.

Excited to find a spinosaurus!

One really cool thing about Harry Potter World is that in crossing over to the other theme park, you get to take the Hogwarts Express. We were going from Islands of Adventure to Universal Studios, and hence went from Hogsmeade to London King's Cross.

Here comes the Hogwarts Express!

The car inside was very cool - the display made it feel as though you were really riding the train from Hogwarts.

Arrived at Universal Studios, aka London King's Cross! I've never been there, but it really felt like the real train station.

When you first arrive, all of the buildings around look like London, including this three-story bus.

Then, you pass through a brick wall to get to . . . Diagon Alley! Diagon Alley was awesome. As Will put it, Hogsmeade and Hogwarts were both great, but a scaled-down version. The number and variety of shops and streets made it really feel like you were in the middle of Diagon Alley.

My favorite part of Diagon Alley was seeing the outside of Gringotts' Bank, where there was a huge dragon that actually breathed fire at regular intervals. There was a ride here, too, although our kids decided to skip it due to the lines.

Having a great time!

One of the many stores here. This one sold owls (aka stuffed owls).

Daniel was very excited to discover Knockturn Alley, the dark shopping area off to the side.

Burke's!

After exploring Diagon Alley, we headed off to explore more of Universal Studios. Will and Annika went on the Simpsons' Ride, which they both gave two thumbs up - especially Will, who is a huge fan.

The kids rode this ride, whose name I have forgotten, but it is basically a variation on this classic carnival prototype. ;)

The kids were super excited to discover a Sponge Bob Square Pants store. Here they are below, inside of Sponge Bob's pineapple home.

Daniel with Patrick! This is the only time in my life that I can remember Daniel actually requesting to pose with a character of some sort. He was very excited.

We also caught the parade! Here is, of course, Sponge Bob.

Our final ride before heading back to the hotel was the Minion Ride. It had a 55 minute wait, the longest of any we encountered, but that's okay because Daniel declared it his favorite part of the whole visit.

Me posing with the giant ball on the way out.

Back in the hotel, Gryffindor Daniel was thrilled to try on his new outfit. He is very ready for Halloween.

What a great day today! Seeing the joy in the kids was priceless.

We have definitely been walking a lot, too - yesterday was over 18,000 steps (around 9 miles) and today was over 15,000 (7.5 miles). We'll have to see what tomorrow brings - the plan is to head to Disney's Hollywood Studios nice and early in the morning - they have Extra Magic Hours so resort guests get in an hour earlier, which means we might actually have a chance of signing the kids up for the much-coveted Jedi Training Academy. But either way, I bet we will have a blast!