Universal Studios

The family and the world!

So, almost 2 weeks ago, we hopped on a plane to go to Orlando, Florida.

Yes, the surprise trip my husband sprung on us less than 48 hours before we had to leave!

Now, we've been to Florida before. We've also done Disney, but we've never done Universal Studios before.

So we headed to the airport, excitement in the air! Also, maybe some anxiety. Okay, in my case a lot of anxiety. I don't like planes. I don't like flying. I'm not a good person to sit next to on a plane. Especially if the plane hits turbulence. Or makes a noise. Or starts to turn. Or goes up. Or goes down. Well, I think you get the picture.

The boy was so excited to be on the plane!

My younger two children weren't entirely sure what to make of it either. They have flown before, they were just so young they can't remember it. So for them, it was essentially like flying for the first time. Mister Man was way more excited than nervous. Miss M takes after me and was feeling more anxious (but also excited).

However, they flew like champs. They are both willing to get in a plane again - which is good! I also flew like a champ thanks to xanax (and if you ignore the couple of minutes during turbulence when I thought I might pass out from forgetting to breath).

Cabana Bay Beach Resort Lobby

We headed to our hotel: the Cabana Bay Beach Resort. It's a new hotel that looks old. No, it's themed to look like the 1950's and they did an incredible job with it! It was 50's without being over the top 50's. Lovely pool. Great food cafe area. We did have one hiccup - we got to our room and realized it was missing  bathroom door! But they were able to switch us very quickly (again, new hotel, so some kinks to work out)!

The upside to a new hotel is there were plugs everywhere. Tons of plugs. Also, a few USB outlets too - which is so nice. I would gladly stay in this hotel again in a heartbeat!

Then we were all tired so it was to bed so we could get up nice and early the next day because we would be able to get into Harry Potter world an hour early since we were staying on property.

Alright. Sunday morning. Headed to the park. Straight to Harry Potter.

Me with my butterbeer!

Have I mentioned I love Harry Potter? Since the second book was released? Before the movies? That I got most of the books at midnight releases and then stayed up all night to read them? And have been to more than one midnight showing of a movie.

Walking into Hogsmeade was AMAZING! I know it's not real. But they did such a good job with it. It felt just right! I was in heaven. Just in heaven! It was so fun to see. The whole family loved it! So we did some rides, and walking around. And I had butter beer! Yum! I'm sure I looked like a kid in a candy store!

Dinosaurs! Awesome!

After time there, we headed to the Jurassic Park area - which was a perfect area for Mister Man! He loved it! We spent some time looking at the dinosaurs and he did his first big kid ride!

The husband and the girls took this time to go on some bigger roller coasters - they had a blast! We had a lot more fun - that is blurring together in my mind LOL! But then some of us (myself) went to the hotel room to relax and check out the pool! Which was so great after the winter we've had, err, are still having!

Upside down Underwater Selfie!

Monday was much the same! Lots of fun, lots of walking, lots of rides. We encouraged everyone to pick the one thing they wanted to do because we saw that Tuesday was predicted to be rainy.

I also, bravely, went on the Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit Roller Coaster. It was intense. I'm too old for rides like that! But it was fun and I'm glad I tried it. Even if the husband had to sort of carry me off LOL!

On Dueling Dragons

Tuesday started clear, so we started out by going on a few rides! Then we had a nice treat: we ate breakfast at Three Broomsticks in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The food was good, but the atmosphere makes the breakfast. The whole thing was just magical (see what I did there? ;-))

We had time to do a bit more around the park, but the rain moved in.  Husband and I had a back-up plan though - there is a movie theater at City Walk. So we took the kids to see The Lego Movie. It was a cute movie and a good way to spend the rainy afternoon.

After that, it was time to head to the train station to begin the next part of trip to DC {I'll save those stories for another day}.

My things =)

All of this to say, our time in Orlando was fantabulous! I would go again in a heart-beat. Universal is such a great place to go. The hotel was great. I loved the areas of the park and there was stuff for the roller coaster riders and the not roller coasters riders. Universal definitely gets two thumbs up from all of us!