For some moments in life, there are no words.

Friday, February 20, 2015

DisneyWorld - Universal Studios - Islands of Adventure - - Feb 2015




  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! 

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