Sorry kids! We're going to the DARK SIDE!

[mrsabbott]

So, after driving through endless pine trees, we finally crossed the Florida state line. It's kind of deceptive though.. you think to yourself, "We're in Florida! We're almost there!!" However, in actuality, you aren't almost there because you still have to drive through half the state to get to Orlando!

We've never driven to Florida from this direction before. It's a different route, normally, from our area to Florida and again from Louisiana to Florida.. We detoured to Charlotte and so we went an entirely different way. We drove through, I think, St. Augustine and Daytona. I believe we might have stopped outside Jacksonville for gas and it was kinda scary there. It is hard for me to imagine Florida being scary, but it was. There were bars on all the doors and windows. People gave us some strange looks, but it could have been that we had that crazed look you get when you've been travelling in the car with 4 wild creatures.. I mean, children. We still saw a TON of pine trees, but we were seeing more palm trees and that made me happy!

We decided to NOT stop in a sit down restaurant and instead grab Subway that was connected to the gas station (not the one in Jacksonville though.. that place was creepy!) but it ended up being way crowded and took us an hour. Hubs also developed a bladder the size of a pea and kept stopping to go to the restroom break. Sorry, TMI..

Long story short, I'm really glad that we didn't schedule anything for Saturday evening because it was close to 6pm by the time we arrived to check in! A good 3 hours later then I wanted to be there. Hubs did most of the driving, but I drove that last bit. Thank goodness for Priscilla! That is what I named our GPS. She has a kind of prissy voice. I feel like she secretly wants to call us all idiots and I'm pretty sure I detected some annoyance when she kept "recalculating".. To be fair, I know a Priscilla in real life and she isn't prissy at all. Hubs asked me, at some point in the trip, if I knew someone named Priscilla that I didn't like but I honestly just named the GPS Priscilla because she has a prissy voice. Hubs also said that I should stop naming things, specifically the GPS, so he wouldn't feel so bad when he threw it out the window..

Let me jump ahead a little bit here and say that while mapquest directions and a GPS are way handy.. bring some maps along. Invest in a good atlas. I love maps and atlases and things like that. Hubs scoffed at me for wanting to bring them and I ended up leaving them at home and more then once, especially on the drive home, did we wish we had them. Hubs even admitted that I WAS RIGHT. It was a pretty momentous occasion. So, if you are driving, bring maps.

Anyhoo, we arrived at Bahama Bay and my first thought was that it was BEAUTIFUL!! I snapped a few pics:

(Notice the sign on the right.. it says that the spot is reserved for Wounded Warriors and has a purple heart on it. We didn't park there the entire time and then, on the last day, Hubs realized that it was the parking spot reserved for OUR room. Hubs doesn't have a purple heart, so he just assumed it didn't apply to him. We still didn't park there.)

I never did get a chance to really walk around and explore like I wanted. There were some nice areas. We had a nice pool right behind our place that was never very crowded and very clean. There was another pool and a splash park by the main clubhouse. I believe there was also a small lake and fishing dock somewhere on the property. We found out later that one half of the resort is just vacation rentals and the other half are actual apartments!

Here are some pics of the inside:

A few things to note:
Plenty of cups, plates, bowls, silverware, utensils, and cookware were provided. There was also a coffee pot, toaster, microwave, and blender. A few paper towels, plenty of toilet paper, trash bags/can, wash cloths, bath towels, and beach towels were also provided. In closets we found a vacuum (but no broom or dustpan), high chair, and a portable crib. There was also a washer and dryer. There were NO cleaning supplies there at all. None. I brought laundry soap, dishwasher soap, and some Clorox wipes with me, along with a few garbage bags just in case. I didn't think to bring potholders (not provided) or kitchen/dish towels (also not provided) but we made due. It also never occurred to me to bring glass cleaner as the dining table is glass. I used the Clorox wipes but they streaked pretty badly.

We didn't use the kitchen much. Used the oven twice. Used the fridge to keep stuff and was thankful that it had an ice maker. Used the dishwasher a handful of times. Used the washer and dryer daily!

There were TONS of restaurants close by as well as a place on site that offered room service. More on that later. There was also a SUPER TARGET! Oh, how I love Target! A Super Target is almost like a dream come true. I wish we had one close to us! Strangely, it never occurred to me to buy some glass cleaner at Super Target until the last day.. and I was in there at least half a dozen times! Oh well..

We checked in and unloaded our stuff. The kids claimed their rooms, although it ended up changing. We thought it would be a good opportunity for Buds to get over sleeping in a crib and start sleeping in a big boy bed. Let's just say that, despite the fact that he was exhausted, he refused to sleep in the bed. He was so happy when I finally gave up and pulled out the portable crib from the closet. He kept saying, "That! Want that!" and practically climbed in there to go to bed. I think he is just feeding into my denial that he's not a big boy but still a little baby.. The girls kind of went back and forth between the two rooms.. for all the talk of having their own room, no one wanted to take advantage of that and the sisters usually ended up all in the same room. They secretly love one another.. Shh!! Don't tell!

After unpacking, we were all famished so we decided to eat out. I spotted a Chuy's and wanted to eat there! I LOOOVE Chuy's! I love everything about it! The bright colors! The eclectic, kitschy décor! The food! The funny t-shirts!

I actually took a few pics but they turned out too dark, but we all had fun! I highly recommend mixing their pico and the white sauce together and eating it on the chips.. and their Tres Leches cake is to DIE FOR!! The closest Chuy's to us is an hour away.. probably a good thing too. I'd eat there at least once a week if I could!

We went back to our resort and got ready for bed! We planned to be at Universal bright and early the next day! We turned on the TV and there was a Harry Potter marathon on.. I took it as a good omen and fell asleep with visions of butterbeer and rock cakes dancing in my head!!

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Hubs also said that I should stop naming things, specifically the GPS, so he wouldn't feel so bad when he threw it out the window..

Anyhoo, we arrived at Bahama Bay and my first thought was that it was BEAUTIFUL!!

LOL, I totally hear you on the GPS frustrations!!! Every time our super-polite "Samantha" recalculates in that oh-so-patronizing tone, DH threatens to send her flying . We tried her a few times with the various accents available, and while Australian Samantha or British Samantha made us giggle, we still wanted to beat her up a little .

Bahama Bay looked fantastic! Your villa was awesome. Did you get any photos of the pool areas?

 

[wendy3]

Hurray, you made it!! Next update: Universal! Whoot!!

 

[mrsabbott]

I woke up early on Sunday and made some coffee.. I wanted to give myself some extra time to get ready. I'm pretty sure I mentioned earlier how I was convinced that I forgot something and that morning, I realized what I had forgotten. Men, just skip on down to the next paragraph. Ladies, I'm sure you will completely understand what the big deal is. I completely forgot to bring a light colored bra. I remember washing them, I just forgot to pack them. Not a good thing considering half my clothes require a light colored bra vs the brightly colored polka dotted or neon pink ones.. The outfit I had planned to wear on my first day at Universal was a bust. So was about half the things I brought to wear. Instead, I had to wear what I wanted to wear when we went to Downtown Disney.. I also forgot to pack pajamas, but that wasn't nearly as big a catastrophe. And yes, I did plan my outfits to coordinate with each park. Hubs thought I was a little nutty, but it makes sense to me.

Guys, it is safe to start reading again now.

I was pretty excited to finally visit "Harry Potter World" as our family has started calling it. Now, I should mention here that one of the ONLY things that I was really looking forward to at Universal was the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I did briefly look into the other areas of the parks, but WWofHP was the ONLY thing I cared about seeing. It's not that I hadn't read good things about the Universal Parks or that I didn't believe those of y'all who'd been there before.. but I just couldn't fathom Universal being as over the top impressive like the Disney parks are. I was excited about going and thankful for the opportunity to go, don't get me wrong, but mainly because I'd finally get to see "Harry Potter World".. and try butterbeer.

I'm also going to warn you that on this vacation I took over 900 pictures. Not all of them are any good and a majority of them were of the WWofHP. Strangely, I keep noticing all of the pics that I did NOT take of things and I can't fathom why. I mean, 900 pics but not ONE pic of my first butterbeer, or my candy haul from Honeydukes, or of my girls and those doggone unicorns that they simply HAD to have or else they might DIE!!

Anyhoo.. back to the TR. I got myself ready and woke everyone else up so that I could get THEM ready. The plan was to get there by rope drop. Did I mention how we are always LATE??

Harry Potter, here we come!!

By the time we got there and parked, it was a little after 9am. We had a confirmation number that we had to use to pick up our tickets (they were two day park to park tickets) but there was some confusion as to where to pick them up at. I was in line at the ticket booth area and was actually the next in line when Hubs came and got me and said we needed to go over to this other place and that it would be "faster". Turns out, I could have gotten our tickets where I was in line at and Hubs' way was NOT faster. So, we actually entered the parks by around 9:40ish. I was irritated slightly, but had a lovely chat with a woman who was waiting also and the kids were happy just to be standing outside the gates and the sun was shining and, well.. no need to sweat the small stuff, right? So what if we wouldn't get to do Olivander's this time? Right??

So, we booked it straight to WWofHP.. Actually, I kept stopping to take pics and ooh and aah over everything along the way. Hubs got a little annoyed with me but everything was SO detailed and amazing!! I couldn't help myself!

And finally, I was THERE:

Sunday was CRAZY busy!! I was expecting "mild" but it totally felt like "moderate" to me!! The line to Olivander's was already long, so we headed towards The Three Broomsticks. Hubs went to Honeydukes to get the Rock Cakes while I got the coffee and hot chocolates. The pics I took inside Three Broomsticks didn't turn out well. It was super cool in there though! Apparently, my camera does best outside in bright sunlight.

We went out back and had a quick breakfast.. The coffee was just so-so, but the Rock Cakes were super yummy!! While eating, I noticed this sign:

We didn't see a sign saying we shouldn't feed the squirrels, which was a good thing since Buds found great joy in sharing some of his Rock Cake with one..

As it turns out, the whole family was able to ride Flight of the Hippogriff together! I was surprised that Buds was allowed. The wait time was about 30 minutes. I've always been a little enamored with Hagrid's Hut in the books and movies! I would totally live there!

There was this sort of topsy turvy iron fencing around the ride that I liked a lot. Hubs said he thought he could weld and make one and I said I wanted one just like it around our garden. Did I take a picture of said fence? Apparently not.

The entire family, including Buds, enjoyed Hippogriff! Very fun little coaster! We then headed on over to Hogwarts to ride Forbidden Journey.

Now, I parked the stroller outside the castle and brought just my camera and wristlet with me. We were planning on doing child swap anyways. I stuck my camera in my pocket but had my wristlet on when it was my turn to ride and nothing was said. I didn't think anything about it, but it is a big no-no to have any loose items on there I guess. It was likely overlooked. My wristlet was small enough that I could probably have shoved it in my pocket if I needed to. I just didn't think about it.. So, just because I happened to do it doesn't mean that it is allowed. When in doubt, use the lockers. We never did, but they look pretty straightforward and easy. We also didn't see a big line or crowds around the lockers.

Let me just say that the inside of the castle was amazing! I took a TON of pictures. Sadly, none of them really turned out well. The attention to detail was awesome! I LOOOVE how they did the talking paintings! Once we got past the greenhouse waiting area, the castle was just so cool and interesting that the wait didn't seem like long at all! I think it was 45 minutes, perhaps longer.

I saw this sign down a random, roped off hallway in the castle:

None of these pics even begin to do it justice! It was just so awesome!! It was finally our turn and since Buds was too small, we chose the child swap option. Buds, Pod, and I waited while Hubs, Punky, and Boo went on the ride first.

Now, let me just tell you how I will NOT be winning the Mom of the Year Award.. I knew that Forbidden Journey might be slightly scary.. I'd read about the dragons chasing you and stuff. But Boo did so well on Hippogriff and she wanted to ride Forbidden Journey so badly that I just didn't think it would be too much for her. I should have known better. Boo is all hearts, flowers, rainbows, and fluffy bunnies.. Dragons, dementors, and giant spiders are just too much for her. They came back and Hubs said, "Boo got a little scared." I looked at her and her whole body was shaking and she couldn't speak. She was absolutely terrified. I've known for quite some time that she would not survive a zombie apocalypse but she barely survived the Forbidden Journey. Some of the team members (cast members??) came over to make sure she was okay. Once she was calm and talking again, Pod and I took our turn on the ride while Hubs consoled Boo with promises of candy or something.

I'm going to be honest with you here. I didn't care much for Forbidden Journey. It was kind of cool, but about halfway through, I got motion sickness. Seriously. If I had already eaten lunch I probably wouldn't have been able to keep it down. The last few moments of the ride were me trying not to hurl. I barely remember a lot of it. Pod and Punky absolutely LOVED it, but Boo and I had no desire to ride it again. I would like to do the castle tour again sometime though.

On our way out, Hubs wanted to ride the Dragon Challenge. Punky was absolutely convinced that she would grow the 2 inches needed to ride it and was sorely disappointed that she had not. So, while he rode the coaster (which he absolutely loved and said was just awesome!! I was still reeling from my Forbidden Journey experience and didn't attempt it.) the rest of us went and got some frozen Butterbeer. Did I take a picture? Of course not.

I got mine in the souvenir mug, but the rest were just in the plastic cups. I could not WAIT to take my first sip! I'd been waiting AGES for this moment!

I was disappointed.

My first sip of frozen Butterbeer (using the straw provided) tasted like a semi-sweet, flat cream soda. I tried it again. Meh. And again. Meh. I wanted to cry, I was so disappointed. Hubs joined us and took a sip of his (straight from the cup) and said it as awesome! Say what? Really? I took another sip through my straw. Still meh..

I didn't say anything because I thought surely I couldn't be the only person in the world that thought Butterbeer was a complete and utter disappointment. Then, I noticed something.. once the white, frothy stuff (which I later tasted and it was ah-mazing!) started to melt and mix into the Butterbeer, it tasted pretty good. The secret is to NOT use a straw. Either drink it from the cup (where you get some of that frothy stuff mixed in with it) or wait until it's melted and mixed together. The combination of tastes is what makes it good, I think.

We left Harry Potter World and headed over towards Mythos. I have to say, besides WWofHP, that area is my all time favorite themed area there! I just loved it! It was so pretty!

It was lunch time and I wanted to see if we could still get a reservation (maybe for dinner if not lunch) at Mythos. It was one of those places that I had read so much about and built up in my mind (sorta like the Butterbeer) that I was afraid I was going to be disappointed. They told me that they had no more reservations open BUT that it would only be about a 30 minute wait for a table! Heck, yeah! So, they gave me that buzzy, light up, pager thingamabob and I let the family know what was up. The kids were fascinated by this place:

There was no wait, apparently, so Hubs took the girls to check it out. We had no idea what it was exactly, but we figured they'd be done before our table was ready and Hubs said to just text him if they weren't back yet. Not even 5 minutes later, our table was ready. Long story short, 45 minutes, 18 texts, and 20 phone calls later.. I ended up giving up our table (although they were so sweet to try and hold it for us despite the HUGE line of people waiting for a table at that point. I wanted to simultaneously cry and throttle Hubs!

Turns out, there was a slight wait to get into "Posieden's Fury".. And it isn't a ride exactly but a sort of tour. A tour where they ask that you turn off your phone. And once it starts you can't exactly exit out of there. Had we known, they wouldn't have gone, although Pod and Punky thought it was the most awesomest thing EVER!

Still, we no longer had a table ready and the only place I wanted to eat at any of the parks was Mythos. Like I said, I'd totally built it up in my mind! Hubs said to see how long the wait was, so I went back and explained to the worker there what happened. He was a sweetheart and said he'd bump us up and give us the first big table available.

We spent the next 20 minutes being absolutely fascinated with this duck:

No lie, our children were captivated by this duck. One of the highlights of the entire day for them! LOL!

It was swimming around in the above pond thing.. Hubs was the one to notice the face in it!

They finally called us to our table and I thought the inside was just amazingly beautiful!

Like I said, my camera seems to work best outside.

We ordered some sort of flatbread appetizer without the meat, that I didn't get a picture of. It was delicious! They also brought out some fresh baked bread and butter that was molded into the Universal logo. I tried to get a pic of it but it didn't turn out. Three of the kids got cheese pizzas and one ordered a pasta with garlic sauce. The pizza's were awesome and the pasta was pretty tasty! The kids all liked their food a lot!

Hubs got some sort of Mahi Mahi dish, I think.. He said it was amazingly delicious!

I ordered the Veggie Pad Thai. It was, by far, the best I'd ever had! I absolutely LOVED IT!!

Mythos has such a relaxing, cool atmosphere! The servers and stuff were so sweet! The food was amazing! It not only met my expectations but it exceeded them! Hubs was equally as impressed and he isn't one that impresses easily! I can't recommend this place highly enough!

That said, I have a very fussy 2 year old that needs a bath and then tucked into bed.. I will have to finish up the rest of this another day!

 

[mrsabbott]

LOL, I totally hear you on the GPS frustrations!!! Every time our super-polite "Samantha" recalculates in that oh-so-patronizing tone, DH threatens to send her flying . We tried her a few times with the various accents available, and while Australian Samantha or British Samantha made us giggle, we still wanted to beat her up a little .

Bahama Bay looked fantastic! Your villa was awesome. Did you get any photos of the pool areas?

LOL! I'm so glad to know that I'm not the only one who names inanimate objects! I wish Priscilla could have an Australian accent but we don't have that option.

We only got to visit one pool, the one behind our place. I didn't get any pics at all. We did see the splash park and it looked awesome. I'd planned to take a walk around and take more pics but it just never happened! It was very clean though. The only thing we didn't like was that they closed the pools at sundown. I couldn't understand why, but then I noticed that there was no exterior lighting around the pools.

 

[Heluvsme]

Great update!!

I am looking forward to WWoHP like you, and like you I'm hoping to not have my hopes up too high. I am a little worried about my husband's shoulders fitting into the seats on Forbidden Journey. Fingers crossed, he wants to go on it so badly.

Mythos is also my one place I want to eat.... Can't wait!!

Thanks for the update!

 

[LuvEeyore]

Great updates!!

 

[mrsabbott]

Just have a second to pop in! No time today for another update, but hopefully I can get one done tomorrow! I am really enjoying the process of reliving our trip through a trip report!

Hubs and I were joking last night that we were going to just get up and go to Florida tomorrow instead of going to work/school! We were also dreaming about annual passes and how often we would use them if we had them! I wonder if it would be possible to get tired of Universal? Is there such a thing as too much? ....Nah!

 

[wendy3]

Is there such a thing as too much? ....Nah!

My motto is "If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing"

 

[mrsabbott]

Slumber party for the girls last night and lots of yard work today.. I will get back to my trip report ASAP! I brought some of the Florida sunshine home with me and I have to take advantage of it and get some stuff done!!

 

[mrsabbott]

Sorry that it has taken so long to get back to this TR.. Life has been a little crazy here lately and I took advantage of the nice weather to get some work done outside this weekend.. just in time for the snow. 89 one day, 38 the next.. Wouldn't be dealing with this kinda thing if we were in FLORIDA!!

Anyhoo, I think I left off at our lunch at Mythos.. Which was amazing and I can't possibly recommend this place enough. I wish I were there now..

We ate and the entire time Punky and Pod were talking about the Poseidon's Fury and how much they wanted me to see it. It was a 30 minute wait at that point, so I said we would try to come back. We headed over to the Dr. Seuss area because there was a lot more there that seemed Buds appropriate, plus Boo needed a BIG dose of happy.. She was still slightly subdued by the Forbidden Journey experience. Actually, she thought Poseidon's Fury was a little on the scary side and didn't have much of a desire to see it again either.

I've got to say, I just LOVE the Dr. Seuss area. We're all Seuss fans in our family, Hubs included. I am just completely wowed by the theming in this area.. the whole park actually.

The first thing we went to rode was the High in the Sky Seuss Trolley. I was a little surprised that Buds wasn't allowed on this ride. I measured him before we left and THOUGHT he was.. but after being allowed on Flight of the Hippogriff it was kind of a shock that he couldn't ride the Trolley. I guess it wasn't as secure or something?? The girls and I waited in line for it while Hubs took Buds to look around at other stuff and to ride the CaroSeussel. The line for this ride was super long but the ride itself was very cute. It afforded some nice views but it wasn't something we wanted to ride again. They did take pics of us and I got suckered into buying a couple of them. They were cute, although $20 for 2 pictures seemed rather excessive to me. But the girls really wanted them and they WERE cute and we WERE on vacation.. If I ever figure out how to get my printer to scan, I'll post them. We opted to get stars put on our tummies (you'll know what I mean if you go ride it) but the story in the queue did give a nice little opportunity to discuss a life lesson with the girls.

So, Hubs is texting me to hurry up and meet him (had to stop and get fresh batteries on the camera which is why I only have one from the Trolley ride). We nearly missed getting to see The Cat in the Hat and Thing 1 and Thing 2. Hubs got good pics on his phone of Buds (which I need to download) but I did get a couple with my camera!

We then rode One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish a couple of times, which was a favorite of the kids.

The Caroseussel was super fun as well! So cute!

Punky took this pic of Hubs and I while we were waiting:

After that, we rode the Cat in the Hat ride, which was a long wait but also a cute ride!

I was so tempted to buy the kids Thing shirts.. something I wanted to get for them before we left but it didn't happen. They were pretty pricey though and all I kept thinking was that I could get them done for much cheaper on my own. I didn't get them, but I do think I will get them done. Hubs thought I should buy some Grinch pajamas they had.. I wonder what he was trying to imply.. Hmmm..

So, Hubs REALLY wanted to ride the Hulk coaster, so we headed over to the Comic Book section of the park. It was a long wait for Hulk. An hour or something. There was some sort of spinning ride that the girls wanted to go on.. I don't care for spinning rides. I've apparently gotten wimpy in my old age. Punky and Pod rode together (they spun that thing around fast! Ugh!) while I rode with Boo and Buds. Buds was big enough for that ride. I concentrated the entire time on NOT hurling.

After that, we grabbed a snack out of our snack bag and then went off to explore that area. It was nicely done. The kids saw a giant claw game where you could get a giant minion and just HAD to play it. Their arcade there is ridiculously expensive! And I'm sure you can guess that no minion was won.. We then walked on a bit and I got the girls a dippin' dots to split. After that, Hubs texted me to let me know it was almost his turn so we headed over to the bridge under the coaster to wait for him. He said that it was way fun!

It was getting pretty late at this point and I wanted to go to Honeydukes and get my candy and to try butterbeer again. We made our way back to Harry Potter World and Hubs took the kids while I went into Honeydukes. I think you will remember that I had the bright idea to wait until the end of the day to buy our candy.. and so did the rest of the park visitors. It. Was. Packed.

There as a line to check out wrapping around the store. I was so glad that I didn't have the kids in there with me. I'll tell you something that really irked me though. The groups of people (mainly teens, it looked like) who would just STAND there, talking. Not looking at stuff, not shopping, not even discussing Harry Potter. Nope, they were just standing in the middle of the aisles, in groups, talking about who said what to someone else. Perhaps this makes me the crochety old person but, honestly, isn't it rude to take up space in an already crowded store and getting in the way of actual customers when you aren't even buying anything? I don't know. Maybe I was just grumpy after a long day.

I quickly grabbed a couple of Chocolate Frogs, a Bertie Botts, some Sherbert Lemons in the keepsake Honeyduke's jar, a Pumpkin Juice, and some Fizzing Whizbies. I left Honeyduke's and went over to a cart selling key chains and picked one out for myself (a ticket for the Hogwarts Express). After making my purchases, I met up with everyone and Hubs went to ride the other Dragon Challenge coaster. I got in the LOOOOONG line to get a couple more Butterbeers. The kids wanted to try Pumpkin Juice, so I bought a 2nd one at the Butterbeer cart.

Now, I actually enjoyed the Butterbeer more the 2nd time around, now that I knew the trick of NOT drinking it right from the straw before it has a chance to blend. The kids took a few drinks of the Pumpkin Juice and while they said they liked it, they weren't blown away. I, however, REALLY enjoyed it! It's like pumpkin pie in a bottle! I kinda think that I MIGHT like it a little more then the Butterbeer..

I texted Hubs (he was still in line) and let him know we were heading towards the front of the park. Everything was closing and the girls were going to just DIE if they didn't get to buy the fuzzy unicorn stuffed animals they saw when we first got there. We wouldn't let them buy them when we first arrived because we didn't want to lug them around. It is the stuffed unicorn like the one in Despicable Me (which is probably one of our favorite movies now).

Hubs met up with us as we were making our purchases. He bought a thing of Pepper Imps and some Peppermint Toads. The girls kept hugging and shaking those unicorns and saying, "IT'S SO FUZZY I WANNA DIE!!" as we made our way out of the park and to our car. Did I get a picture? Of course not.
We also got a few pressed pennies along the way to commemorate the day!

We broke open the Peppermint Toads in the car and they were delicious! We were all pretty hungry and decided to stop at Super Target on the way home to grab something to eat (and a light colored bra for me so that I could actually wear the clothes I brought with me). Gosh, I love Super Target! Not only did they have plenty of veggie maki rolls available, they had plenty of bras that are actually MY SIZE.. which the Target here doesn't have much of. (Sorry, guys! Pretend I didn't bring that up again!) Got the kids a frozen pizza and we started towards the resort.

Unfortunately, there was some sort of construction happening on that road to our resort and it took nearly TWO HOURS to traverse maybe 3 miles. It was too much for Hubs to handle. He's got some PTSD issues and I think he had reached his limit with all the crowds and stuff at the park, so the traffic was the last straw and he had a bit of an outburst. Thankfully, he doesn't have them often anymore and I can happily say he didn't have another one the rest of the week. Once we finally made it back to the resort, he apologized to all of us. The kids were too exhausted to eat and just wanted to go to bed. Hubs and I ate and pretty much crashed right afterwards.

The next day... Sea World!!

 

[chs27]

You are really good at this trip report thing. I'm tasting my vacation in the air now, just under two weeks away. Afternoons always bring with them the urge to snack. So, I'm ravenous after hearing of your trip to Honeydukes.

 

[wendy3]

What a wonderful day you had! We are going to Universal for the first time on June 1 (hope, hope, hoping that the new Diagon Alley is NOT open when we go so we just have to battle "normal" crowds, not "HP opening crowds"). We have been to SeaWorld, and it was fun, but we are a Disney family.

Sounds like you enjoyed your nice weather. Unfortunately, it sounds like the snow we just had is heading your way. More snow coming for us this week. Big Sigh.

Looking forward to your next update!

 

[plannermom]

So happy to see your update tonight! The picture of the two of you is very nice, you look so relaxed. I didn't buy a thing in honey dukes when we went and it sounds like we will have to make up for that when we go next! Sorry about the lousy traffic, not the best way to end the day.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Another great update! Keep 'em coming!

 

[Heluvsme]

Great update!

That is a long day, I think I would have had an outburst too!

Glad to hear you liked Mythos, that is the one place I am really looking forward to!

 

[pixeegrl]

Did you guys get a chance to interact with the talking fountain? I hope so, the boys loved it! Stand back though if you don't want to get wet!

 

[mrsabbott]

Did you guys get a chance to interact with the talking fountain? I hope so, the boys loved it! Stand back though if you don't want to get wet!

We tried twice. The first time, it made no noise at all. The second time, it was snoring. Loudly. My girls and several other children were trying to get it to wake up. Punky even rallied the kids together.. "1...2...3... WAKE UP!!!"

Nothing.

So, we gave up and moved on.

 

[LuvEeyore]

Great update!!

 

[mrsabbott]

I woke up early enough to browse the internet and have a cup of coffee before we started getting ready. I hadn't made many plans for this park and figured we would just wing it. When we were there back in 2009, the sting ray area was closed and that was the one thing I remembered from visiting as a kid.. I was hoping we would get to do that and feed the dolphins again.. that was the extent of any plans.

We got ourselves sunscreened up in the parking lot. The weather was just absolutely perfect!!

I'm going to be honest with you.. we stopped and looked at the flamingos for quite some time. I've always really liked flamingos. I took a zillion pictures but, for your sake, I will only post one.

Aren't they cute? They are so much pinker in Florida then they are at the zoo.. although, that could be due to diet. Or perhaps there are more then one type, I'm not sure. As much as I love them, I've never bothered to research them. Hmm.. Perhaps I will google them later.

These statues made me so happy and I want some EXACTLY like them for my garden. I am completely serious. Pretty sure Hubs would die if I started decorating with flamingoes wearing shoes..

So, Hubs wanted to ride Manta. While he got in line (lines were quite short and the crowds were so-so.. definitely busier then when we visited before though) the kids and I looked around and they simply HAD to play a game. It was like the duck pond game only I think instead of ducks they were turtles. They had their own money and it was crazy expensive but they were insistent. Punky, Pod, and Buds won stuffed cupcakes. Yay. Boo won a giant star fish. Predictably, Punky tried to con Boo into trading but we nipped that one in the bud..

So, now that we had stuffed animals to lug around the rest of the day, we waited for Hubs and he said Manta was a fun coaster. It was made even more enjoyable by the screaming teenagers he rode with. He said the single rider line was walk on and I decided to give it a try. I did fine on Hippogriff, and was hoping that I could handle larger coasters better then the spinning or simulated rides.

I will say this, Manta was kinda fun.. at first. The angle was very different, like you are flying. In the beginning, I enjoyed it but as it started corkscrewing and looping I got a little nauseous and was happy it was over. Let's just say that I won't be joining the Quidditch team any time soon.

We then caught the dolphin show which was as awesome as I remembered! Buds especially loved it!

We walked around a bit and came across the sting ray petting area and I was SO STOKED that it was open!! We spent quite a bit of time in this area! I'm telling you, some of those sting rays had personality! I don't know how to explain it, but there was one big one that would sort of splash us when it would circle by and another that would move away from us.. Anyhoo, I was instantly transported back to my childhood and my kiddos loved it as much as I did!

The dolphin feeding area had a wait, and we were hungry so we decided to head over to where the eating areas were. I had packed a snack bag and, of course, forgot it at the resort. We passed by the Antartica Empire of the Penguins but it was a LONG line.. we never did make our way back to ride it, but I did snap this picture because I thought it was cool!

We went over to Sharks Underwater Grille and were debating on whether we should eat there. When we first walked up, we were told reservations would be a 30 minute wait and it would take 2 hours to eat there.. There was still a lot we wanted to see and didn't exactly want to spend 2 hours eating.. not to mention that the prices were OUTRAGEOUS! I mean, we would have easily spent $200 on one meal there. We opted to NOT eat there in the end. While Hubs and I discussed all this, the kids busied themselves by feeding sharks and sting rays.

We decided to instead eat at the Spice Mill which was packed. They had veggie burgers and a make your own PB&J kids meal that sounded so cute, so we figured it would be the best bet for us to get an okay meal. Hah!

Boo and I ordered veggie burgers and we were supposed to get an option of fruit, but they just automatically gave us fries. That was fine, I guess. After waiting so long in the cafeteria style line, I didn't care. Of all the meals chosen, ours was the biggest bang for the buck. The fries were really good and the veggie burger wasn't bad at all. It was big and I couldn't believe Boo ate the entire thing. Of course, she was too full to eat her fries which was a good thing as the rest of the food was puny and her sisters and brother shared the rest of her fries.

Hubs got an $8 grilled chicken salad thing and he said that McDonald's makes better tasting (not to mention larger) salads then this one. The PB&J kids meals consisted of 2 slices of goldfish shaped bread, small tubes of PB&J, and 4 sickly looking strawberries. We got an order of "decorate your own cookies" that were 4 to a bowl and the kids ate those for dessert. We spent almost $80 on that food. Hubs says he remembers the food not being very good and overpriced last time. My advice? Pack your own lunch. I didn't take pics of the food, but trust me.. it was pitiful.

However, not far from the restaurant was Sea World's "pick a pearl" area. It was actually kind of cool. They had a glass enclosed area with oysters on the bottom and the divers would bring up a bunch to the top and let you choose. The divers were very interactive with the kids, which was so cool! Buds was in love..

She blew these air rings which the girls are STILL talking about!

Y'all know how excited I was to pick a pearl, but Punky kind of took over. She got way into the whole thing and, although it is technically my pearl, she informed me that she is the "mother of the pearl" because she touched it first.. and that makes me the "grandmother of the pearl"..

We got a 7mm white pearl. I didn't get it set.. I am putting it up for another time. I wasn't pressured into having it set, they just bagged it up and encouraged me to have it appraised by a jeweler. Their store did have some beautiful jewelry for sale though.

Hubs really wanted to ride Kraken, so the kids and I went off on our own. We had a meeting place picked but we got turned around. We instead viewed the dolphins:

And then we did Turtle Trek which the kids LOVED!! We got to get up close to the sea turtles (and I can't find the pics I uploaded right now, so I will have to try and hunt those down and add later.. sorry!). Eventually, you go into this dome and you put on 3D glasses and watch a movie from the perspective of a baby sea turtle's life. It was so funny because Buds actually kept his glasses on and there were these jellyfish that looked like they were right there and he kept reaching out his arms to grab them! There was one part with a crab that Boo thought was scary, so she didn't like that part of Turtle Trek very much.

Of course, you leave right by a gift shop and the kids wanted to buy stuff. Buds, Boo, and Punky got little stuffed sea turtles. Pod got a rubber, glow in the dark jellyfish. Pod marches to the beat of her own drum! Inside the gift shop was a giant picture of a sea turtle made out of jelly beans. I took a pic of it but can't find it now. I did find this pic of the landscaping outside of Turtle Trek which I thought was super awesome:

The kids were anxious to ride a ride, so we went over to Journey of Atlantis. We met Hubs over there and he said he enjoyed Kraken. I didn't even attempt it because I'm a big wimpy pants.

I just noticed that it looks overcast and foreboding in this picture, but I don't even remember it being cloudy. It didn't rain at all and the day was sunny and nice. Hmm.. odd.

Anyhoo, I rode it first and let me say that this ride as super fun! Although, Punky and Pod's excitement over it might have made it all the more fun.. the people riding with us sure got a kick out of them. Boo kinda liked it, but also thought it was scary. Buds was too small to ride, so he and Hubs watched us from a viewing spot that pretty much guarantees that you will get splashed. Buds enjoyed splashing around in the puddles. The kids got more wet standing at the viewing area then on the ride. You know, they have something called "Family Dryers" and for $5 you can all stand in there and get dried off. We didn't do that because there are several things that will dry you off for free.. they are called sunshine, air, and time.

Punky and Pod wanted to ride again, so Hubs went with them this time while Boo, Buds, and I wandered off a bit and explored..

I'm actually going to have to stop here. I have to get dinner for the kiddos and I want to try and locate those missing pics.