We left for our road trip to Florida after church on Sunday, October 6th.
But first we had to take down our last countdown tag.
Florida here we come!
Well. . . actually Georgia. We drive until about 10pm and stayed the night before finishing up our journey the following day.
After getting settled in our resort, we went out for some food. There are a ton of options in Kissimmee/Orlando, but we decided on Chuy's. Bella just happened to be wearing a Chuy's t-shirt, so it just seemed fitting. While we were waiting, a man named Denzil came to our table and made balloon characters for the kids. Bella got Harry Potter, Curtis got Batman, and Graydon got Marshmallow - a Fortnite character.
Graydon wanted a close-up of his character.
While we were there, Bella decided to buy herself a new Chuy's shirt.
Breakfast time! Eat up. . . we're going to Disney World! You can see from the background, that we stayed in a spacious place. It was a condo with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, full kitchen and dining room as well as living room. Having all of this room was really nice.
Bella enjoyed her breakfast in the living room.
Our Magic Bands from four years ago still worked, so we were able to use them again!
Hello Magic Kingdom!
We arrived just a little after they opened.
I was able to get fast passes for all of the rides we wanted to go on with the exception of Seven Dwarves Mine Train, so our game plan was to head straight to that ride before the crowds picked up. The wait time said 40 minutes when we arrived, but we probably only waited about 20.
Bella threw a penny into the fountain in front of Gaston's Tavern.
Mickey's Philharmagic is such a fun 4D show. Disney does such a great job with their shows! They really do feel magical.
It's a Small World.
Rapunzel's Village.
Bella had a deep appreciation for all of the pretty murals.
That'll teach them.
We treated ourselves to some ice cream: a Fomoso (apple cider and orange cream soft serve ice cream) and a swirl sundae.
While sharing these treats, a Disney angel (that's how we refer to her) showed up and gave us another sundae for free! She disappeared so quickly after giving it to us which is why we started calling her our angel.
We went exploring through the Swiss Family Treehouse. This is something that we didn't do last time.
Bird Show at the Enchanted Tiki Room.
The crowds were pretty low on Tuesday. We were able to get right up to the castle and never waited longer than 15-20 minutes for a ride or show. The forecast this week called for thunderstorms every day. We did get a little bit of rain here and there, but nothing too bad. And it was worth it if it kept the crowds down!
Another mural that Bella found. This one was in Tomorrow Land.
Festival of Fantasy Parade. Parades make me happy. Disney parades make me happiest!
Pirates of the Caribbean.
We took a ferry over to Tom Sawyer's Island. Another thing that we didn't do last time.
We explored some caves.
It was so cute watching Graydon. He was determined to reach that bell and he finally (just barely) did it!
More exploring on the island.
Bella and I decided to take some photos while waiting for the boys to come out of the bathroom.
Splash Mountain! This is my FAVORITE ride. I love it so much! I'm not one who enjoys getting wet, especially when I'm in my clothes, but this ride just makes me happy. It's the best mixture of thrill and traveling through a Disney story. And at the very end, the song "Zip-a-dee-doo-da" is playing. You just can't help but feel happy.
We didn't do the Photo Pass this time around, but I did screen shot this one of us on Splash Mountain. Fun memory to have.
Graydon's butt got a little wet on Splash Mountain.
The kids brought their pins for trading. Bella was definitely the most enthusiastic about it. Graydon did it a little bit and Curtis decided to keep all of his original pins because the thought of parting with any of them made him feel sad.
This Stitch pin was one of her favorite new trades.
These are Graydon's new pins.
The park was closing early that evening for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party. We didn't buy tickets for that and we had plans to be back again the next day, so we started making our way out of the park. But first, another castle shot. This was from behind. Not quite as pretty, but I can't seem to resist taking photos in front of the castle.
I loved all of the Halloween decorations.
See ya real soon! That's right. . . tomorrow!
When we came four years ago, we pushed the boys in a stroller. This time, they had to walk. Curtis was wiped out!
That evening, we rented a movie called Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Our resort had a free Red Box and it was Bella's turn to pick. This movie was based off of a book. It was interesting (I didn't fall asleep, which is pretty rare for me these days) and parts of it were actually a little scary. But it was a fitting movie to watch during this Halloween season.
Since we had plans to be at Magic Kingdom until late, we enjoyed a slow morning by relaxing at the pool.
Around lunch time, we made our way back to Magic Kingdom.
It was definitely more packed this day.
Waiting to get on to the Jungle Cruise. I love their friendship.
Because the lines were so much longer this day, we took in more shows and explored a little more. Over 22 years ago, I went to Disney World with my friend's family over Spring Break. I was 16 years old at the time and my friend and I split off from her parents. Her dad told us to make sure that we saw Country Bear Jamboree. We never did and he was actually pretty upset that we didn't. Finally after all this time, I can say that I saw Country Bear Jamboree.
We ate a late lunch at Pinnochio's Village Haus.
It started to rain a little bit while we waited in line for Ariel's Under the Sea Adventure. Thankfully, most of our wait was in a covered area.
The boys found some things they wanted in the carnival shop. We ended up with one bag of cotton candy and a lemon slushy.
Dumbo!
Graydon and his faces.
Shows in front of the castle.
We were in one of the shops when another little parade got started. Mickey's Dance Party.
We didn't focus on character meet and greets this time around, but we couldn't go to Disney World and not see Mickey Mouse.
The kids are so much bigger than they were four years ago.
We went for a ride on the Liberty Square Riverboat. This was also something new for us that we didn't do last time. While we were on it, we got to see areas of the park that we hadn't before. This is another view of the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We had fast passes for this ride, so we didn't even wait in the line that long - which was nice - but we also didn't see all of this detail.
Mark Twain narrated as the riverboat cruised through the water.
Our view of the Haunted Mansion from the riverboat. We didn't do this last time either, but now that the kids are older, we decided to do it. So glad we did!
Finishing up our riverboat ride.
After we got off, I was able to get a good view of the boat.
As the evening wore on, the lights came on in Rapunzel's village.
Bella took some of these neat photos.
Tomorrow Land Speedway. Each of the kids drove the cars. I was with Curtis, Andy was with Bella, and Graydon drove himself. Curtis was a wild driver!
Now we come to the point of the vacation where we completely splurged. My big disappointment from our previous Disney vacation was our terrible view of the evening fireworks over the castle. That was the ultimate Disney experience that I was looking forward to and it just didn’t work out. We didn’t want the same thing to happen this time, so we purchased tickets for a fireworks dessert party that included seating in a reserved courtyard area for the fireworks show.
Here are some of the desserts (and a few savory snacks) that I chose.
Disney desserts are the cutest!
Happily Ever After on the bottom of the chocolate covered strawberry. That was also the name of the fireworks show.
There was also a s’mores roasting station.
Build-your-own-sundaes.
We may have lost a little money on Graydon, who is not a huge dessert person.
But he did have his fair share of sparkling cider.
After finishing up, we made our way down to our special viewing area.
The fireworks show: Happily Ever After! These photos bring happy tears to my eyes. I loved this show SO much!
While waiting for the show to start, we talked with a girl who is a season ticket holder. She told us about a bonus show that would begin 30 minutes after the original show. We stuck around and got an even better view of that. This show was called, “Once Upon a Time.” It was also amazing!
And then it truly was time for us to get going. Main Street at night.
The next day was a break from the parks. I began the morning with some coffee and peanut butter toast while enjoying the sunshine from the screened-in porch. This feature is going onto my wish-list for a future home. All the joy of the outdoors and none of the bugs!
We enjoyed the resort pool again.
Even I got in! The pool was heated, so that helps.
Our main outing that day was to the Disney Springs area that evening. We ate dinner at Planet Hollywood and everyone agreed that this was the best meal ever. Bella and I split this burger. It had Mac n’ cheese on it!
We re-visited the LEGO store.
Graydon found some scarves at Anthropologie.
There’s all sorts of live music and entertainment at Disney Springs. The night life there exudes energy. But we needed to get a good night of sleep because the next day was Universal Studios!
The first ride we went on was Despicable Me. I must say. . .the rides at Universal are AMAZING! They are part movie, part roller, part 4D experience. The Mummy ride we went on even had fire!
This character snuck up on Bella from behind. She freaked out and screamed a little when she turned her head and his head was right there. It was quite a sight.
Jaws!
Before hitting up Diagon Alley, we went on the Men in Black ride and got some lunch. Everything was super packed, so we definitely waited in a lot of lines. Finally, we made it to Diagon Alley.
Our first stop was Olivander’s so we could purchase our wand.
There were several wand options to choose from. We could have gotten Harry Potter’s wand or Dumbledore’s or any number of characters. Or we could purchase our own personal wand. We went with that choice. We selected the Holly Wand. According to the description, “Wood from Holly trees has magical healing properties and is thought to repel evil. Holly people make good leaders and thoughtful, loving and effective counselors. Holly people should use their understanding of the dark, hidden side of humanity to guide others in their time of need.”
Our new family wand.
Every so often, this dragon would breathe fire over Gringotts Bank.
Once we had our wand, we went all over practicing and casting spells.
Browsing through Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. Such a fun store!
Chocolate Frogs were a popular treat in the books, but at $12 each I was content to just bring a picture home.
Bella successfully cast her spell, “Aguamenti!” and had water coming out of that faucet.
I didn’t get the best photo of this one. It was one of the trickiest spells. But she was able to make it rain down from an umbrella.
I mostly took video of the spells, so I’m missing documentation of the boys casting their spells.
After exploring for a bit, we decided to get in line for the Escape from Gringotts ride. The wait time was listed as 105 minutes. It was about 2:30pm. Our plan was to enjoy this ride and then take the Hogwarts Express over to the other Universal theme park, Islands of Adventure, where we would arrive near Hogwarts Castle. We knew the line would be long, but in our experience at Disney, the wait times weren’t as long as the listed time. While waiting in line, I braided Graydon’s hair to pass the time.
The line got more interesting once we actually got inside the bank.
Once we made it to this point, we thought we were so close. We just had one hallway left. We could just about see the end. But this is where it felt like the line slowed down extremely. We were already at about the 100 minute mark. We waited in the regular line. There was also an express line for those who paid an extra $90 so they wouldn’t have to wait in the long lines. That would have added almost $500 to our ticket price, so we opted out. It felt very frustrating, however, to see that line moving rapidly as our line moved at a snail’s pace.
After about another 30 minutes, we finally got to the ride. The line had already lasted longer than predicted, so we were all starting to feel a little frazzled and frustrated. Then, before we even got to the ride, there were another two waiting areas. Once we got through those waiting areas, we opened a door to find another little line. And that was when Bella lost it. She broke down in tears and felt like we had wasted so much of our day in line for one ride. Thankfully, that last line went relatively quickly, but the experience for Bella was already ruined. She had a hard time enjoying the ride because she felt so frustrated and disappointed by the long wait.
To make matters worse, by the time we got out of the ride, it was almost 5pm. Universal Studios was closing at 5pm that evening because of a Halloween party that you also had to buy extra tickets for (which we did not). We wanted to take Hogwarts Express over to the other park, but the line was listed as another two hours. They closed it down and weren’t accepting any new riders. We didn’t even have an option to wait. This was another huge bummer because the reason we bought tickets to both parks was so we could ride on the Hogwarts Express.
The one good thing out of all this is that Diagon Alley had cleared out quite a bit. We lingered around for just a little while so we could take in the whole experience without all of the frenzy from before. Curtis’s turn to make water come out of the drinking fountain.
Graydon ended up losing a tooth! (He put it in his pocket and then he really lost it because we never saw it again. I think the tooth fairy might still owe him money!)
Thankfully, we were still able to try Butter Beer! This was on our Universal Studios bucket list.
Bella was still working on cheering up.
Graydon was just feeling good because of his tooth.
There we go. . . Starting to feel better!
Although we were feeling disappointed about not riding Hogwarts Express, it was so nice to walk through Diagon Alley without all of the crowds.
Of course, that experience was somewhat short-lived as the workers began to usher us out. Instead of riding the train, we walked out of Universal Studios, across the citywalk, and up to Island of Adventure. Unfortunately, we had to wait in another long line just to get into this park. It probably took us another 30 minutes just to get in to this park. Having just been at Disney World, I couldn’t help but compare and I felt that Disney handled their crowds so much better than Universal. A line of that size at Disney would have made it through the entrance in 5-10 minutes tops.
By this point, we really only had two hours to explore this park. With ride times in that same range, we soon realized that we weren’t going to get to do any of the rides in this park. We really wanted to see Hogsmeade, so that was the area we aimed at.
There were more shops to explore.
The Three Broomsticks. This is a popular restaurant in the books.
Hogwarts Castle. In her planning for this trip, Bella read that you could tour the castle even if you don’t go on the ride. We looked for an entrance, but couldn’t find it. Somehow in our search, we saw a woman who mentioned that, while the wait time for the ‘Harry’s Journey Through Hogwarts’ ride was 85 minutes, the single rider line only took about 10-15 minutes. The boys were too young to ride as singles riders, but Bella wasn’t. And she was the one who was most disappointed by how our day was shaping out, so she and I decided to ride as single riders while Andy and the boys looked for something to eat.
We ended up getting through that line really quickly. Bella rode with one group and I rode in the next group. It was an awesome ride and somewhat redeeming for Bella. I still feel bad that the boys didn’t get to do any rides in this park. There were just too many people and not enough time. But we did get to cast some more spells.
As we were heading out to leave, Bella took this really neat photo of Hogwarts.
We left the park hungry. We just didn’t have it in us to wait in anymore lines and everything was just too crowded. Instead, we ended up in a Panera Bread drive-thru on the way back to our resort. The kids were being silly while Andy placed the order.
That evening, we rented Pirates of the Caribbean. I fell asleep in the middle, but I think I was the only one who was awake at the end. I had a mixture of emotions that night. I felt disappointed by how our day at Universal Studios went and also sad that we were leaving in the morning. Time with my family is my favorite. Even though we all live together, we all have our own separate things that we do throughout the day. This was a whole week of together time, which I loved so much.
I wasn’t the only one feeling sad the next morning.
But we did have this gal to get home to. It was fun to look on Facebook during the week and see this photo of her that was taken by the ladies who run the kennel. I think she enjoyed her Fall Break too.
While our final day of vacation had some frustration, it was still an amazing time. We are so fortunate to be able to take trips like this. Now that we’ve done Disney twice, we’ve already started talking about other places we might want to visit in the future. I don’t exactly know when, but we are considering Gatlinburg, TN and the Great Smoky Mountains. The plus side of that vacation is that the drive time will be under six hours! Until then, we will enjoy all of the memories that we made on this vacation.
