Family Trip of a Lifetime - Universal Studios

We love thrill rides in our family and were all excited to go to Universal Studios. We were even more excited to see Harry Potter and we were not disappointed! We rented a van and all piled in and headed off to Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios. We had a ticket that would allow us to park hop, but found ourselves enjoying this park so much we spent all of our time here. There is plenty to do and see, I will just hit the highlights - well, mostly.

One book we read said to go left instead of right when going to amusement parks - going against the grain of sorts. So...this is what we did. Our first ride was the Hulk ride. Oh, it was a thrill ride and most who rode it enjoyed it, but for the first time in my life, I got "sick" on a ride. This is not a ride for those with a weak stomach.(And....for the future, I would go right in this park. Ride the Hulk at the end of the day.)

Dad took this while we were on the ride. I felt like this ride punched me in the stomach :)

I took this from across the park. This is only a small portion of the Hulk ride. It was fun, but holy twists and turns.

The kids went on a tea-cups type ride that Sarah and Matthew liked so much they went on it twice. Matthew was smiling but it was so hard to capture because they were going too fast.

This is Dad and Jonathan on one of the Jurassic Park rides. It actually has a height restriction on it and adults can only ride when accompanied by a child. The boys loved it - they totally got to fly!

The highlight of the day for all of us though.....was Harry Potter! Seriously, you felt like you were in Hogsmeade. Walking around there was magical! It is not even something you can fully capture in pictures, it is the experience of being there. Most of us have read the books so with that in mind, we knew what it was meant to feel like. We felt like we were there!


Here we are arriving at "Harry Potter Land".

Hard decision? Which way to go first. We chose left and rode on some fun rides before hitting Hogsmeade.

Hogwarts! I hear the ride is cool, but I rode the hippogriffs rollercoaster with the boys and allowed the other girls to ride the cool rides.

If only it was cool enough to have snow. Seriously, amazing! They had performers in several places around this part of the park. The kids loved it.

We ate lunch at the Three Broomsticks. It was awesome!The food felt like it could have been served in the Three Broomsticks in the book. The atmosphere was cool.

Zonko's was one of our favorites stops. The boys loved just looking in the windows! Definitely one of the best put together theme parks I have been to. Well done! Mom wanted to go to Ollivanders, but the line was SO long. Thank heavens you could look at wands at other shops in the park.



Our other favorite area at Universal Studios was Seuss Landing. By the time we got here we were all TIRED and mostly just walked through it, but loved what we saw.

Dr. Seuss had the most amazing imagination and they have captured it in so many creative ways. Dad and I were both captivated by their Caro-Seuss-el merry-go-round.

We went into the Cat in the Hat shop and bought the boys Thing 1 and Thing 2 shirts. By the time we were done, so were they.

 After our fun day at Universal Studios, we headed back to Port Orleans to have some dinner.

After hitting the lego store on our first day, Jonathan started playing "Lego hands" which made it super hard to hold his hands.  He would hold his hands as stiff as he could in this position. So it was our job to hold his wrist or his hand because he wouldn't hold on. While waiting for dinner, I had him demonstrate what lego hands looks like. What a nut!

Matthew got pizza. Disney sure knows how to cater to kids. He was in heaven.

Sarah had to order off of the adult menu and at times that was concerning. This is a big bowl of kids Mac and Cheese. I am sure they have dealt with hard to please kids before, but it was nice to see them take care of her like this. The bowl was huge and she ate every single noodle!