On to the BUSY part of November.
We went to Florida!
Yes. Again. Jeez. You say that like we've been there a lot.
I made a promise to Huzbend that we would NOT visit Disney this time.
I believe, if this is at all possible (and it's not for me), that he is Disney'ed out.
We decided to visit The Dark Side: The Universal Orlando Resort.
I know. Crazy, huh?
I wasn't expecting a lot. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised.
This is where we stayed while visiting Universal.
We chose to stay on their concierge floor to take advantage of continental breakfast and snacks during the day.
The greatest staying onsite perk ever came in the form of the Unlimited Universal Express Pass.
It's kinda like FastPass at Disney, but you don't have to race against all of humanity to get to a ticket machine to receive a return time for your ride of choice.
You have a badge you show to the ride attendant and then hop in a special shorter line.
That's it. I'm not kidding.
It kicks Fastpass's butt.
That's it. I'm not kidding.
It kicks Fastpass's butt.
I cannot state how incredibly convenient it was having this.
There was virtually no wait for any ride.
AND, for the kids favorite rides, we were able to get off and get back on.
Many, many times.
I would say the downside was the you felt like a privileged person.
While everyone waited in line an hour or more for some rides, you could breeze right by while straightening your ascot.
I would say the downside was the you felt like a privileged person.
While everyone waited in line an hour or more for some rides, you could breeze right by while straightening your ascot.
As is tradition with the kids, if there is a pool, they must swim in it.
It was the first thing we did upon arrival (besides eat lunch).
There was a DJ at the pool playing rock (of course) and running all sorts of fun games and activities.
Here is one such activity.
Guitar Rock Out: Boys Vs. Girls.
If you're wondering which one Katie is, she's the one wearing goggles.
For being a totally rockin' participant, Katie got to keep her guitar.
Hmmm. And then it was....
Guitar Rock Out: Moms Vs. Dads.
Who is that rad mom in the middle there?
I got to keep my guitar too.
After the pool we cleaned up and headed off to a luau.
We arrived a tad bit early and found a place to wait.
Everyone promptly fell asleep.
We had taken a red eye flight through Houston and boy was it a killer.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Katie woke up to enjoy the dinner and the show.
They were VERY accommodating of the kids allergies.
They even had desserts they could eat! That almost never happens!
"Did someone say DESSERT?!?!?!"
Mikey, on the other hand, woke up to eat a bit of mac n' cheese and then passed back out.
He missed the whole show.
Fire dancers included.
"ALOOOOOOOOHAAAAAAA!"
It was the end of a very long day.
Back to the hotel for some shut eye.
We met up the next morning with Matty, and his mom and dad of course, for our first foray into a Universal park.
Hello, Islands of Adventure!
Hello, very high scary looking Hulk coaster!
Wow.
We quickly hung a left as we entered the park and headed straight to
Marvel Superhero Island.
First ride on the agenda: Spiderman.
Yes!
Universal does not allow photography and/or video on their rides.
You can ask Uncle Chris about that.
He was called out in the middle of a Cat In The Hat ride by a ride attendant.
No lie.
I was able to quickly snap this shot before we headed off on our
Spiderman adventure.
And what an adventure it was.
As stated on the Universal website it is the "first ever combination of moving, motion-based ride vehicles, 3-D film and live action."
Yes. It lives up to the hype. And the kids really liked it.
Well, Mikey did not appreciate the part where Electro zapped our car.
But, other than that he thought it was cool.
Just about every ride on property lives up to the hype.
It was a good way to start the day.
And then, to make it even better, we walked out of the requisite after-ride gift shop and saw some super heroes rolling our way.
Hi, Cap!
While the grown-ups took turns riding The Hulk Coaster, the kids had multiple rides on
a super fast tea-cup style ride named for Storm from the X-Men.
Uncle Chris looks scared.
The great search for lunch occurred while were at Marvel Superhero Island.
Nut allergies, soy allergy and gluten.
It was horrible.
I had to go to multiple places to get food my kids could eat.
Every time I asked if the food was safe, the attendant would pull this old fashioned black phone from under the counter and call someone.
Then I would have to wait for the people on the other end to call back with an answer.
Meanwhile, there was a line of like 5 people behind me.
Ugh.
After we finally, FINALLY, all found a suitable and safe lunch, we headed to Seuss Landing.
It took about an hour to find and eat our "fast food".
Ah.....Seuss Landing.
What a fantastically themed area! All Seuss, all the time.
And what made it even better was that it was decorated for the holidays.
Here we are enjoying the Caro-Seuss-El.
Super cute merry-go-round with crazy Seuss characters.
Guess what?
There's another advantage to vacationing with other people.
You can steal their photos to prove you were there too!
Then we enjoyed the Cat In The Hat ride. The kids were obsessed with it.
We rode it about 4 or 5 times over the span of our little vacation.
I think they liked it because the ride spun you around so hard it flung your head from side to side.
Like whiplash fast.
The kids were like, "Wheeeeee!"
The parents were like, "Whooooaaaaa!"
Mikey's favorite part was, "when the fish was in the toilet."
And then it was time.
Time to visit Hogsmeade.
Holy Hogwarts!!
I did a lot of "research" about the souvenir food options in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Could our food allergic kids have butter beer?
I got a call back from Chef Joe of Islands of Adventure assuring me that it was safe.
An actual live person called me back! All right!
Could they have any of the sweets in Honeydukes?
Quick searches online showed me that, nope, mine couldn't.
Nut warnings abounded.
No worries. I came prepared.
I whipped out my wand and conjured up some
nut/soy/celiac safe Chocolate Frogs!
Hermione Granger would've been proud.
One unintended side effect was that they induced a major case of hyperactivity.
Hmmm.
Ooops.
I quickly escaped the chaos by ducking into The Hogs Head Pub to get some Butter Beer.
A cross between cream and butterscotch soda with a vanilla ice cream flavored frothy topping, it was mmmmm-mmmm delicious.
The theming was as amazing as the frosty beverage.
We chose not to wait in the atrociously long Harry Potter and The Forbidden Journey ride line.
We would return another day to take advantage of the early entry perk for onsite guests.
We did however ride The Flight of the Hippogriff family roller coaster an insane amount of times.
Like, five or something. One after another after another after another....
"AGAIN!!!!"
The kids fell in love with all things Harry Potter.
I believe they will be the first ones on Platform 9 3/4 on their 11th birthdays.
Phew. It was time to call it a day.
We headed out through Seuss Landing, enjoying the holiday decorations at night.
We bid farewell to our pal The Lorax and heisted ourselves off to dinner.
The next day we headed to Universal Studios Florida.
Home of Gru, Shrek, The Transformers and The Simpsons amongst others.
After a visit to the Kingdom of Duloc, we decided we would pay a visit
to Gru's humble abode.
Mikey was excited.
Everyone enjoyed the Minion Mayhem ride.
Except Mikey. He wasn't a big fan.
Not sure why.
We then helped Optimus Prime and his buddies protect the All Spark from
Megatron.
That is a real guy you can take pictures with.
He's huge.
Right at the last minute, as we were entering the Transformers ride vehicle, Mikey switched where he was standing and ended up riding with no adult next to him.
Us moms were not so happy about that. I spent the whole ride watching him.
What I heard of the ride was pretty cool though.
And having Optimus talk to you directly at the end was a childhood dream come true.
It turned out that our nervousness about Mikey was unfounded. He LOVED it.
Katie, uh, not so much.
I was worried about the wrong kid.
But, it was all good, she told me she closed her eyes the whole time.
We exited the ride to the sound of an impromptu parade.
Katie liked the Candy Ladies.
And, Huzbend like the Candy ladies too......
We stopped in Springfield, home of the Simpsons, for lunch.
It was, uh, barely edible.
All fast food and not even good fast food.
Oh well.
Strike two for the fast food.
Is this Kang or Kodos?
I don't know.
The ride was pretty lame. Just another up/down/around Dumbo type ride.
It was the in-ride dialogue that made this one worth riding.
Kang (or Kodos) talks to you the whole time.
It was pretty darn funny.
(Sorry, I can't remember any of the one liners)
While the adult boys were off riding The Mummy (my second favorite ride at Universal), we waited for the main Universal parade.
They had a huge Christmas tree just begging for photo opportunities.
Matty decided he would be more than happy to snap a few.
He was very professional as he set up his shot, directing Mom and cousins to smile.
Here's the final result......not too bad!
"I LOVE FLORIDA!!!!!!!!!!"
The parade was short. And kinda cute.
They stopped to dance.
We got caught in the mid-spot between
Despicable Me and Spongebob.
"Yeah, baby!"
Even Vector was there!
I think Universal has some catch up to do regarding parades.
They just don't have the character database to pull from that Disney does.
Maybe a Seuss themed parade....not sure how to help them.
That minion driving the Gru mobile is HUGE.
Bigger than Gru.
Pa-poy.
We did a few last rides - one more ride on Minion Mayhem, a roller coaster that made the men feel like they were going to either puke or pass out (the ladies declined), and Terminator 2: 3D (believe it or not, it's still there).
Then it was time to find some dinner.
We woke up super early the next day to ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.
Well, super early for a vacation I mean.
Here we are waiting in line.
It was the longest we waited the whole trip.
20 minutes.
That 20 minutes was totally worth it.
The Hogwarts in-line theming was incredible.
Filled with lots of stuff to look at, watch and listen to - including a hello from Headmaster Dumbledore and a visit from Harry, Hermione and Ron.
Oh! Talking portraits too!
Here we are hanging out in the child swap room.
The Forbidden Journey ride was beyond fun.
It's a flight simulator interspaced with live action elements.
Like nothing I've ever ridden before.
I got to ride a broom, fly through a quidditch stadium, escape from a dragon.....wow.
It's my new favorite ride of all time.
We rode the kids favorite Hippogriff roller coaster about four more times, I think.
Here they are...going up, up, up!
And here they are at the end.
Phew!
"AGAIN!"
We did some merchandise shopping.
I mean, who could resist?
Hey, that guy in the yellow looks familiar.
Photo op!
The kids found some characters to greet.
"MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!"
Since we had learned our lesson with the fast food, we decided on a sit-down meal for lunch.
It was a good decision.
What a difference.
It was Katie's favorite lunch the whole time we were at the parks.
Pasta with butter.
It takes so little to make that kid happy.
Lookit the butter stains on her napkin.
One last ride for the men.
Jurassic Park: The Ride.
It was wet.
They got some soggy drawers.
"Whooo!"
On the way out we said goodbye to Woody Woodpecker.
He seemed lonely standing there all by himself.
I really, REALLY, like our visit to Universal.
It was refreshingly different than Disney.
The food offerings and their food allergy efforts could do with some improvement.
But, their rides kicked butt and nothing can beat the Express Pass.
Nothing.
So, I would have to say, that we will be back.
And then it was off to spend Thanksgiving at the grandparents.
There were legos......
....there were crafts.....
...there was a pool....
....and there were nut and celiac safe snacks to share!!!
The kids were in heaven.
Until they were told they would have to pose for some photos.
"Uh. What?
Dude. We're on vacation."
"You didn't mention we would have fun hats to wear!"
Little did they know they would have to pose at least three more times.
Grampa had a good time with the kids.
He tickle tortured Mikey.....
...and then took all the kids for rides in the preferred mode of transportation for Florida retirement communities.
Who said that it was ALL retirees preferred mode of transportation?
Don't get any ideas, Mikey.
Turkey Day was here and the table was set.
Katie was waiting patiently with Aunt Ginny for the food to begin!
Oooooo. Fancy!
While we were waiting, the kids had another cute
photo session.
Granma and her soux chefs.
Guess what? I was there too!
I think that's a record.
FOUR pictures of me in one blog entry.
That never happens.
Katie tried a variety of things for dinner.
She ate lots of mashed potatoes, turkey and sweet potato pie.
Mikey ate cornbread.
Just cornbread.
He let me know that he licked the turkey and didn't like it.
One more photo session before dessert.
Apple crisp a la mode.
Mmmmmmmm.
We had a great time vacationing and visiting with relatives over Thanksgiving break.
Thanks to Chris and Sheila for coming up with the idea of going to Florida in the first place and
sharing Universal Studios with us.
Thanks to Matty for having loads of fun with his cousins.
Thanks to Granma and Grampa for letting us crash at their new place and enjoy a wonderful family Thanksgiving dinner.
CHEESE!!
