Saturday April 10-what a beautiful thing it was too leave for our flight at 9am. Everyone met at our house to get Ubers to the airport. We got to the airport in good time and got through ticketing and security pretty smoothly. The flight was non-stop and everyone did so well! We landed and there was lots of lightening so we had to wait a long time for our luggage because they wouldn't unload it until the lightening stopped. Darrin decided to get the car while we waited for the luggage. It worked out perfectly! We waited outside with our luggage for two minutes before he was there to pick us up. We stopped at Walmart to get groceries and then headed to our hotel, Quality Inn at Kissimmee by the Lake, to check in. We ate dinner, got settled and headed to bed.
Sunday April 11-it poured rain most of the whole day today. There was lots of thunder and lightning too. We hung out in our room, played games, had everyone over to our room to hang out and plan the day tomorrow and after dinner finally got to go swimming. Although it was quite cold!
Monday-April 12-Hollywood Studios today! Rise of the resistance was seriously incredible. SO much has changed since we were here last in 2015! I'll start with the cons because I want to end on a positive note because was had an AWESOME day!
Cons:
-Crowds were much higher than hoped for (most lines were an average of 45 min to an hour)
-The only performance was a frozen sing a long which is so sad because last time we were here the performances were a huge highlight of Hollywood Studios 😥.
-Why do they have to open so early?! They open at 9 but really they open the rides earlier than that so you should really get here by 8 but to get into the queue for Star wars it opens at 7 sharp... That's 5am Utah time people!
Pros:
-Weather was great
-We got into boarding group 4 for "Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance" (thanks to @mrs.jenica.simon's magic fingers!) which is HARD to do and it was ahhhhmazzihg!
-Parent swap is wonderful. Period. My in laws have been so great to help with the kids too 🙏.
-Rachel got to ride so many rides including Rise of the Resistance and Tower of Terror!! It was the best! She was so brave but scared enough to keep us entertained 😂.
-Caden rode Rockin' Rollercoaster and Tower is Terror among others for the first time which was classic-gosh I love my kids reactions!
-Going with family is the greatest. Cousins getting to experience it all together plus with Grandma and Grandpa=the ultimate.
-the rides are so incredibly innovative and immersive!
So, it was a wonderful day and I need to go to bed straight away to get sleep for another long day of fun tomorrow 🤣.
Ride order:
Star tours
Rise of the Resistance
Millennial Falcon
Toy Story Land
Slinky Roller Coaster
Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railroad
Frozen Sing a Long
3D Muppet Show
Dinner at Rosie's Cafe
Rockin' Rollercoaster
Tower of Terror
Mickey and Minnies Runaway Railroad again because the line was really short.
Tuesday-April 13th
Today was Animal Kingdom! Another great day. Woke up early again and got to the park at opening although yesterday we got to the park before opening. We couldn't have today otherwise we wouldn't have gotten breakfast at the hotel. A real highlight of the day was the Avitar ride! Holy smokes it was INCREDIBLE. Most of our family rode it three times today. We rode everest Expedition 3 times as well which was another favorite. We did the safari twice which is always fun. Every other ride we did once. The crowds were similar to Hollywood Studios although I felt like there was less rides so we were able to ride some more especially with parent swap.
Rides today:
Safari (always amazing and feels like you're really on an African Safari)
Kali River Rapids
Everest x 3 (SUCH a great coaster-the kids all obsessed over it)
Dinosaur x 2 (quite scary and realistic for kids which made for a fun ride 😉)
Bugs Life 3D
Avatar x 3 (words cannot express how amazing this was but I'll try- INCREDIBLE, BEAUTIFUL, INNOVATIVE AND IMMERSIVE)
Na'vi River Journey (nice and relaxing while also very entertaining)
Safari (the morning safari was better as far as the amount of animals we saw but we still saw a great amount and a new one we hadn't seen last time)
Kali River Rapids x 2 (such a fun way to end the day)
Wednesday, April 14th-Epcot today! It was a hot day full of non-stop fun and food. It was nice to sleep in a bit as they don't open until 11am, buuut, they stay open until 11pm so… we were at the park into 10:30pm and have an early day tomorrow so… Not sure if that's the best idea but we went with it because at night is when everyone goes home and all the rides are walk on! We couldn't pass that up.
-Test Track
-Mission to Mars
-Bakery in Norway
-Day of the Dead Boat Ride
-Frozen
-spiky sour pineapple
-The American Adventure
-walked around the countries around the Lake
-living with the Land
-Soaring the World
-Spaceship Earth
-Nemo
-Aquarium
-Journey into Imagination with Figment
Thursday, April 15- today was Magic Kingdom! It was a fun day and we did lots of things. It was seriously seriously crowded though. I think because there's no live shows and no characters and the long lines that come with those, the ride lines are super long and the streets everywhere are just dodging people left and right despite the "limited capacity". It felt very much so like the "red days" you don't want to go on which takes a lot of the magic out of it. So, if you're thinking you've got to go right away because they're still at "limited capacity" and the lines will be so short etc, don't 😊. The kids were tired and so were we. I took someone potty for the gajillionth time and couldn't help but tear up. It was kind of a hard day for me. You just want everything to be perfect-no kids fighting, complaining or whining, short lines and the flow of the day to go smoothly. Don't get me wrong though-there was loads of fun we had and some of the rides were totally worth the wait due to my kids giant smiles and lit up faces! The second half of the day seemed to go better too with the weather cooling off and the crowds weren't quite so bad. I have always loved Disney and LOVE sharing Disney experiences with my family and I'll always love Disney but I'm excited to have a little break before Universal next week. We absolutely LOVE Universal dare I say more than Disney typically so we're ready to rest up and go at it again next week! We loooove rides-just don't love crowds 😊. Sorry to be a downer-just sayin it like it is and making all y'all who can't come right now not feel so bad 😁😝.
-Buzz Light-year while we waited for the rest of the group (got right on and it was fun)
-Progress Carousel (pretty good actually-even the kids enjoyed it. Just watching a family through the decades and the technology progressing-funny too)
-Speedway
-Space Mountain (really fun)
-Winnie the Pooh
-Lunch
-Seven Dwarfs
-Mickeys Philhar Magic
-Peter Pan
-Haunted Mansion (Caden was super scared and would not get on-i had to pick him up and put him on-i told his m him he could close his eyes but he didn't want to and within the first 30 seconds he was loving it and said it's not scary and he was telling Thea all about how awesome it was)
-Its a Small world
-Pirates (really fun to go on since we just finished watching all the Pirates movies)
-Splash Mountain (we all loved this!)
-Thunder Mountain Railroad (really fun and somehow it was only like a 10 minute wait so we went twice in a row)
-Country Bear Jamboree
-Jungle Cruise (really fun at night-don't think I've done it at night before)
-Magic Carpets of Aladdin (walked right on-last flight of the night which was fun to end the night with this!)
Friday, April 16th-got to sleep in today until around 9-hallelujah! We went to breakfast, the fam came to our hotel room to hang out and plan. Then we went grocery shopping, ate lunch, went swimming, the boys searched for lizzards, and the guys got seafood at Juicy and Crab while those that don't like seafood ate other stuff.
Saturday, April 17th-breakfast, mini golf, lunch, wonderworks (really fun exhibits, ropes course, laser tag, bubbles, 4D movie, astronaut training, roller coaster ride, etc etc), magician show with dinner, more fun at wonderworks until 10pm and back for bed. It was a really fun place with lots to do. It was pretty crowded though. The magician show was great-really funny and good for adults and kids alike. The all you can eat pizza was not good though. A really fun day!
Sunday, April 18th-today we watched church on the way to a beach in Tamba Bay. It took an hour and a half to get there. The water was actually quite nice and the shallow water went way way out which was perfect. It was overcast most of the time which was awesome. Except we all got burned because we were deceived by the clouds. It was a great day at the beach. After we had dinner in our hotel room and planned universal for tomorrow.
Monday, April 19th-Universal Studios! The weather was supposed to be raining all day long today and we were so blessed with only partial light rain! We had SO much fun today despite the crowds. For the rip ride rollercoaster (ahhhmazing) we waited 85 minutes. At least we got to go again with parent swap! The Harry Potter ride was super fun and very different from what I remember (Parker accidentally brought the wand on the ride so they wouldn't let him ride and so he had to sit in child swap with me but then we got to go and they told us we could ride as many times as we wanted-we only rode twice but some in our party got to ride 3 times), The Jimmy Fallon ride was fun and the first time we've ridden.
Despicable me
Shrek
Jimmy Fallon
Mummy
Transformers
Lunch
Rip Ride Rock it
ET
Woody Woodpecker
Missed stunt show
Harry Potter Ride
Tuesday, April 20st-today was a pretty bad forecast for rain but so was yesterday and that worked out. Today we got a great running start at hulk which was a fantastic roller coaster. We got pretty much right on twice plus parent swap. In fact most of the day we only had 5-10 minute waits with the exception of a few 20-25 minute waits! We finally got a virtual pass for Hagrids motorbike and were in line for it when they shut down the ride because of rain. We waited for about 20 more minutes to see if they would
Hulk x2
Free fall tower
Spiderman
Log ride
Rapids
Jurrasic Park
Got virtual pass for Hagrids Motorcycle
Out of line-Rain, Rain Rrrraaaaainnn
lunch
Cat in the hat
Carousel
Sneetches Train Ride
Hagrids Morltorbike x 2
Found money and got fizzy chocolates and butterbeer
Flight of the Hypogriff
Harry Potter ride
4.21.21 Universal again! We did a day of mostly shows today at universal with the exception of Rip n Rock it Coaster, Fast and Furious and MIB. The shows that are open right now and that we went to are the Horror Makeup Show, The Born Identity stunt show, and the Animal Actors show. We ended the day in Harry Potter land using the interactive wand which was fun.
The horror makeup sure Parker really got picked on. They got major attention from some street dancers and Scooby characters too.
I'm so glad and impressed that Universal still has some shows going on unlike Disney. They also had TONS of characters out today socializing with people unlike Disney. Another cool thing is they force everyone to sanitize before every ride (they physically squirt it onto every persons hands) where as at Disney they just have dispensers all over that are usually empty.
I HAVE TO put a plug in for The Born Identity stunt show here at Universal. It was INCREDIBLE. Seriously blew us all away. One of THE BEST shows any of us have ever seen.
Also, it's Mardi gras here and so they throw out necklaces to everyone right and left. The kids (especially Parker) got a humongous collection and at the end of the day threw them onto the tree everyone else threw there's onto. They had a blast.
4.22.21 Last day of Universal today! Islands of Adventure again. It was super crowded today so we didn't get a ton in but did what we could. We did Hulk and Spencer really really really wanted to try to get on with socks stuffed in his Heeles but he still didn't make the cut and that was devastating to him. After Hulk we did Spiderman, then Dr. Dooms Freefall, the rapids a couple times, the teradactle ride, the Raptor encounter, Hagrid's Motorcycle adventure twice and ended the day with the talking fountain who got the kids soaking wet and the Dr. Seuss Carousel. Everyone met up for dinner at "Sakura Asian Fusion" which was DELICIOUS and then we came back to the hotel for swimming and bed.
4.23.21 I set 4 alarms to wake up on time today and somehow do not disturb got turned on and silenced my alarms! We were supposed to get up at 3:50 to make it in time to the rocket launch and we got woken up at 4:35 by Parker telling us we needed to get up we were going to be late!! We debated whether we had enough time to make it but quickly decide it was worth trying. We grabbed our bags, woke everyone up and ran out the door.
We knew we needed to do the tolls to even remotely get there on time. We had three tolls to go through with exact change and one of them Darrin chucked the coins and they didn't make it in the machine so I kept having to give him more. We sped and made it to an area we pulled off the side of the highway to watch since we wouldn't make it to the beach the rest of the family was at to watch. It was the SpaceX Falcon 9 and Dragon Rocket Launch. Was it worth it? YES! It was truly emotional because of how beautiful it was to watch, hear and experience. Poor Caden didn't get the full experience because his flip flop was broken and he was crying in the car about it while the rest of us booked it out of the car to watch. We literally had 30 seconds once parked before it launched. It was just incredible..
Then we played at a park, went to the beach and ate dinner at a Puerto Rican Restaurant.
What a great last full day.
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