DISNEYWORLD
UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
ISLAND OF ADVENTURE 2015
February 2015
Wow, another amazing trip to Florida! What made this trip extra special was the
opportunity to hook up with Kevin's brother Shawn and his family for a few days
of it!!
We started out at DisneyWorld and hit the ground running by
spending the afternoon at Downtown Disney checking out the shops (especially
the Lego store) and having dinner at the T-Rex cafe. Boy, was it enjoyable to watch Jadeyn's eyes
as we walked into a restaurant with jungle trees and full sized dinosaurs.
Every 20 minutes the thunder would rumble and lightning would flash and all the
dinos would complain loudly. It was
awesome! We had a massive many layer
dessert full of chocolate and whipped cream!
We decided to stay at the Polynesian resort to try it
out. We loved our experience at the
Grand Floridian. This hotel was nice,
but its hard to compare to the Grand Flo!
2/21/15 Bright and early!
Our magic hours for Magic Kingdom began at 7am and we were there
early! We got to stand right at the rope
waiting for the train to come and the rope to drop. It was pretty cool standing in the early
morning twilight with anticipation. We
got to do all our favorites: Belle's
Story, Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain (over and over again), the new Seven
Dwarf's Mine Train. Then it was time for
lunch: something that we have been drooling over since our last Disney trip:
Gaston's Tavern!!!! Massive cinnamon rolls and foamy LeFou's Brew. Oh so good!
Its always fun to pull up a chair with a gooey cinnamon roll and wait
for Gaston to show up and just watch the ladies. There seriously can be a line 15 people long
and its all full grown women. The one
that made us laugh the most was a woman all dressed up in leather leggings and
vest, a red sash around her waist, high boots etc. She approached him and blurted out: do I look
familiar?? I think it took him a few
seconds to realize she was the female version of him!!
We also we entertained by a woman sitting at
the side of one of the parades singing every single word to ever single song of
the parade, complete with hand motions and swaying and yes, occasionally wiping
away a tear!!! I think she really was
waiting for her prince to come! Thunder
Railroad is still one of our favorites and we went several times, along with Goofy's
Flight School. The amazing thing was how
much we were able to do in one day! We walked more than 9 miles and were at the
park from 6:30am to 10:45pm!!! That is one big day especially for Jadeyn and he
was a happy trooper through the whole thing!
2/22/15 Hollywood
Studios! First coaster of day?
Arrowsmith of course!!! Jadeyn is so
close to 48 inches and we were so hoping that he would be allowed on to the
ride. They worker outside the ride
measured him and gave him the go ahead, but told us the final decision would be
made inside. Well, since we ended up
being on the 2nd train of the day, there was too much disorganization for them
to notice Jadeyn! Yay! Before we got on,
Jadeyn asked: does this ride go upside down?
We told him: I don't think so, but its been a few months since we have
been on it... The anticipation as we
waited for the traffic light to turn green was awesome, then the music blared
and we blasted off! On the first upside-down
loop I braced myself for Jadeyn's scream.
Instead I heard his little voice shout: this is awesome!!!! He absolutely loved it!!
We wish we could do the Toy Story ride over
and over again, it is such a fun time.
Off to Star Tours!!!! Such
wonderful memories. I think last trip we
went on it 11 times over the week. Today
we crammed in about 5 times! Jadeyn got
to do the Jedi Training Academy again! Face to face with Darth Vader and some
kind of gravitational pull kept tugging on him. It was really funny, the
Padawan trainer had to keep backing Jadeyn up from Vader. I guess Jadeyn really wanted to make sure he
took him out!
Lunch at Sci Fi Drive in
Theater. We sat in individual 50s style convertible
cars and watched old movie previews and commercials while we ate our massive
burgers. The Fantasmic show was amazing
again with the images projected on the spraying water and all the characters coming
out on the boats. So imagine such a full
day yesterday, followed by another big day today and our dinner reservations
weren't until 9:40pm. Could Jadeyn make
it? We were really close to calling it a
night and skipping dinner, but we were so glad we didn't. It was an all you can
eat Hawaiian buffet at the Polynesian.
The servers came around and piled food cooked on giant skewers onto our
plates. The food was delicious and
dessert of bread pudding was delightful.
Yup, Jadeyn fell asleep at dinner, right in the middle of the hokulea
song! I got a great video of him falling
asleep while eating!
2/23/15 Off to
Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure!!!!
We stayed at the Portofino Resort and wow: it was beautiful and
amazing. Set to be just like an Italian
villa complete with the boats in the harbor.
So nice.
We took our boat to the Islands
of Adventure and we so excited to hook up with Shawn and family!! There is
nothing like having cousins around when you're an only child. Jadeyn was so excited! We went on a few rides as we worked our way
to the back of the park to enter the world of Harry Potter. Words really can't describe fully how
incredible an experience it is to walk into a completely different world and
feel like you just transported into Diagon Ally.
Wow! Every
detail was perfect!!!! And the Butter Beer...oh...the Butter Beer. Never had anything quite like it and we
relished it!! Hot, regular or frozen: it was all so good! The only sad part was that Jurassic Part was
being renovated so Jadeyn missed out on that experience, but it gives us an
excuse to go again!!! The kids romped in
a fountain section near Jurassic park and got absolutely drenched and loved it!
2/24/15 We had the
experience of trying Paulopabita’s Fishy Green Ale. We were so excited to try with creamy green
liquid with dark blue "fish egg" looking things at the bottom. Between the seven of us, we could only manage
about half of the two cups we bought.
Oh, it was strangely nasty and didn't get any better as you drank
it! But, the Gillywater where you could
choose your own potion to mix it was really fun. Jadeyn picked out a concoction that would
make him babble nonstop: Babbleing Beverage. Gee, he doesn't need a potion for that!!
We
had lunch at Finnegan's Tavern, one of our favorites from years ago. Jadeyn was excited to take a picture of
himself in front of the sign and send it to his buddy Finn. Other highlights of the day were the Transformers
Ride and Simpson's ride. As we walked
into the Simpson's ride, there was just a hint of familiarity about it. Then it hit us: is this the old Back to the Future
ride??? Yup! Cool! After the ride, we walked past the Delorian
and there was Doc Brown!! I just had to
have my picture taken with him!!
2/25/15 We got Jadeyn's wand this morning. He was so proud and we were proud of
him. He knew exactly which souvenirs
were important to him and all winter he saved up his money. He had exactly the right amount saved to but
his own wand and his own owl who he named Gornak! He picked the name out from the deep levels
of Gringott's Bank. As we waited in line
for the ride, we walked past several of the Goblin's offices and Jadeyn latched
onto the name! Escape from Gringott's
Bank: wow, so much fun and so much detail.
Walking through the bank gave you an eerie feeling with all the Goblins
looking over your shoulder and nodding to you and occasionally scratching down
notes with the feather quill pen.
Shawn
and family headed to DisneyWorld today.
Boy, it was so much fun to have a few days with them and share with them
our passion for amusement parks! We got
to spend the day leisurely enjoying the details of the parks and wandering
through the Potter shops and watching Jadeyn perform his spells . The Hogwart's
Express was one of the coolest parts of the park. The train connects the two parks and one
direction took you from the human world into the wizarding world and just the
opposite the other way. The details and
interactions were sweet! We even got to
walk through the brick wall at 9 3/4!
Even though Jurassic Park was closed we sure enjoyed the hands on learning
portion of the park. One of the
funniest moments at Islands of Adventure was walking through Cartoon
Island. We had told Jadeyn about how we
had had our pictures taken with Popeye and Olive Oil about 15 years ago. Well, I was taking a picture of Jadeyn when
all of the sudden two figures popped out of the shadows and photo bombed my
picture! It was Popeye and Olive Oil!!
Jadeyn was shocked. It was hilarious!
Since we were on our own once again, we split
up a few times to be able to ride the big rides like the Incredible Hulk. While Kevin was on that one, Jadeyn and I
rode a tide similar to the teacups: a real spinner! We started spinning so fast before the ride
even began that Jadeyn turned a little pale.
I had to talk him through a few moments to keep him from concentrating
on being dizzy! E.T. was a fun memory to
relive. Jadeyn added an extra detail by
giving them fake names at the front: Slasher, Optimus and Destroyer!!
2/26, 27, 28/15 As an extra treat to ourselves, we had Club
Level Service added to our room. This allowed us to have access to the club any
time of the day for refreshments, treats and drinks in the evening, breakfast
in the morning and if Jadeyn asked really sweetly, a handful of granola bars
for the day at the park. It was quite
the experience and really enjoyable. We
got to know the workers in there during the week because Jadeyn was the only
kid most of the time. One guy in
particular really spoiled him. He made
him a balloon Minion every day for him.
One time when he overheard Jadeyn say: Aw, they're out of strawberries,
he disappeared and returned with a plate full of sliced strawberries that
spelled out "HI" on the plate!
Wow, what service!
At the park we got to meet Optimus and Bumblebee and have
our pictures taken with them! Oh and
MIB: Men in Black! One of my favorite
memories from years ago: so much fun. We
went over and over again just like old times!! Staying at the resort gave us a
line hopper pass and we really took advantage of it! There is a new coaster called Hollywood Rip
Ride Rockit. Wow!! It was sweet!!! You could choose your own music to blare
through your speakers during the ride and it truly was a thrill!! We went several times and loved it!
This was one of the rainiest Florida trips we have had,
which, considering the time of year, it is to be expected, but we didn't let it
hold us back. We came prepared with
raincoats and still loved every second!!
3/1/15 Our last day
in Florida. There was no way we could
just leave the hotel straight for the airport!
We packed our bags and then raced off to the park for a few more rides
and at least one more Butter Beer to hold us off until the next trip!! We hopped into the Black Car service with our chauffeur in a tux and headed to the airport.
What an amazingly fun time we had and such great memories!
