Universal Studios - One More Time!

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS (3rd time in a year!!)

Saturday,  January 30, 2016

We tried so hard to keep this trip a secret. Jadeyn had no idea about it at all except that for some reason we had a count down block going for something. Finally, the night before we left, he discovered the suitcases in the back seat and figured out a major clue. Even as we headed out of town, he thought we would only be gone for the two day weekend! We arrived at the, airport and he was really confused. It was awesome to mess with him! On the plane to Orlando! The flight was quite nice and uneventful. We got a lot of reading done and Jadeyn got some of his homework done too.  At the airport, all the Departure and Arrival signs were in blue and orange stripes in honor of the Broncos who will be playing in the Super Bowl next week!

When we landed, it was still a secret until we got to the black car service and of course had to tell the driver to take us to the hard Rock hotel. He says to Jadeyn: hey, you're going to Universal? Surprise is out, but Jadeyn was still so excited.
We decided to try out the Hard Rock Hotel. Now we will have stayed at all three major hotels on the waterfront. (All within a year!) Our take on the hotel: nice enough, fun, really close to the parks, awesome pool, but really not quite our style with all the clubs and Rick memorabilia. But, you really can't beat how close it is to the parks!
Right after we checked in, we headed straight to Universal, went straight past all the other stuff and immersed ourselves in Diagon Allley. And Butter Beer! Oh a sip of heaven!
Sat night: Antojitos Dinner!  We have been impressed every time we have eaten at Antojitos.  Very nice quality food and excellent presentation.  The best part of the dinner however, came when we heard a tiny "clink" sound over top of the restaurant noise.  Jadeyn's tooth fell out right onto his plate!!  It was one of his bottom teeth!  What a way to start a vacation!

Sunday January 31, 2016

Today was the last day of the Potter Expo.  It is a huge convention that travels around the world and here at Universal it is an especially big deal.  Looking around the crowd, we could really tell that something big was going on.  We usually see a fair number of wizards wandering around, and an even greater number of Moguls walking around with wands, but today it felt like every third person in Harry Potter Land was decked out!  A ton of Gryfindor, Slytherin and even a few Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.  Earlier in the week Hermione had been there and today it was Neville Longbottom's day.  We went to one of the special lectures and sitting there among a few of the set designers and special effects guys was a guy of about 26.  Kevin recognized him as Neville.  No way, when he was in the movies he started out at 11, but yup, it was him.  The one section that we missed out on that we wished we could have seen had about a 60 minute wait.  There was complete sets and costumes, props and scripts from the movies. Way cool. 

We knew that we had so many days here that we really took our time to explore all the small details of the park.  At Seuss Landing, Jadeyn led the way through the play area and we did all the activities to make the crazy creatures pop out.  We even played tic-tac-toe on one creatures belly!  We tried not to get soaked on One Fish Two Fish.

 

Lunch at the Three Broomsticks was quite tasty.  Jadeyn and Kevin both had the fish and chips and I had the Cornish Pasties and Garden Salad.  Mine was little biscuits filled with shredded beef.  Jadeyn and Kevin's was a huge platter of breaded fish.  We really didn't think that Jadeyn would be able to eat an entire adult platter, but he proved us wrong!  For dessert we had a jar of clotted cream.  Sounds nasty, but it was a delicious custard! 

Jurassic Park here we come!  Beautiful weather, so why not get wet?  We sat back on the 4th row where we thought we wouldn't get as soaked, but wet we got! 

Dinner plans...humm.  At the Hard Rock there is a nice restaurant called the Kitchen where celebrities and celebrity chefs often visit to play around.  We took a look at the menu and thought: wow, these appetizers look great, we'll have to eat here a few times.  Then we looked at the main courses and nothing really hit our fancy.  Time to get creative: we ordered two appetizers to share and went straight to dessert!   For dessert? We had the 2.5 pound 14 layer chocolate heaven!  It was so huge!!  and so delicious!!

Monday February 1, 2016
On our last two trips to Universal, HogsMeade had been open and hour before the rest of the park for early entry, but this time it was Diagon Alley!  Awesome!  We started out our morning tradition of heading straight for Escape from Gringotts!  I still can't get over the detail of this place! Wow!  We couldn't have asked for better weather on this trip too!  We his mid to high 70s every day until the last two.  Amazing.

Ready for  a Men In Black challenge!!  Here we go!  So, have I not played this recently and smoked everyone?  I was doing terribly!  We went three times and I could barely beat 250,000.  What's wrong.  Oh yeah, you don't have to pull the trigger at every shot, just hold it down.  Well that made a difference!  Kevin and I both broke 400,000 this time!  Yay!  Then suddenly Kevin blew me away with 620,000!  Wow!!  We collaborated and shared our secrets and tried to get the highest possible!

Back at the park we explored the Simpsons area.  Jadeyn just still doesn't get the Simpsons and sarcasm, but Kevin and I laughed so hard on the ride!  My favorite phrase from the ride is the very beginning introduction where the scientist says: What about the leakages and the crackages, who knows what could occurlulate!  We had lunch at Krusty Burger, sharing a Chicken Waffle and a Classic Krusty Burger.  Actually quite tasty.

 

After lunch we came home and hit the pool! It's a really nice one with a zero entry, sand everywhere and a great slide. We made Jadeyn practice his swimming too and challenged each other to contests.

Ready for a night on the town.  We got all dressed up and walked in the perfect 75 degree evening to the Portofino to for dinner at Bice's a really fancy Italian restaurant. Wow, what to order. It was a tough choice. Kevin got the veal shank, I got a ravioli dish and Jadeyn shared with us. We glanced over the menu: there were some 600 to 1100 dollar bottles of wine! It was a beautiful evening for a stroll around the lake and dinner was delicious!


Tuesday February 2, 2016
So, what do you think has been happening back at home while we have been enjoying sunny Florida?  This morning we got the email and call from the Elementary school announcing that due to the 12+ inches of snow that fell during the night, they are calling a  SNOW DAY!!!  Woohoo!  So, it looks like Jadeyn is missing one fewer days than we were planning!  Funny thing is, on our trip to DisneyLand a few years ago, there were two days cancelled due to the flood! 

 

We woke up to find everything encased in a mystical layer of fog.  It was quite a different view from the crystal blue skies we had been used to.  Luckily, it burned off by 10 am and once again it was a perfect day! We had breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron and I really had a fun time asking Jadeyn over and over again: where are we eating.  Hearing him say The Leaky Cauldron with several teeth missing was adorable!  Delicious traditional breakfasts with hot butter beers!  

 

We enjoyed ET and Woody Woodpecker roller coaster and then Jadeyn discovered what was tucked away in the corner back there: a ball park.  Covered in nets, with pulleys and ladders and thousands of balls to collect and send through the vacuum shooters.  They even had an automatic shooter that really let 'em fly!  Day spend at Universal. MIB over and over. Challenging to get the highest score. Simpsons and laughing every time.

We were able to do the Raptor Experience again!  This little Raptor was quite feisty today.  She really barked and growled a lot and even nuzzled in to Kevin's hair!  So...Tuesday evening, no dinner plans, the park closed around 7pm, what should we do? Let's go to STAR WARS!!!  We'd love to see it a third time!  This was the same theater that Kevin and I saw The Matrix II way back in 2004.  We got a large popcorn, loaded up the butter and settled in for another great ride with Star Wars!


Wednesday February 3, 2016

 Today is to be our wet day! The weather was supposed to rain on us, instead it was 80 and sunny! We started out the morning in Diagon Alley for the early hours and wouldn't you know it! Gringott's was down. The line wrapped all the way around the while Alley and out the brick wall! So glad we didn't have to stand in it! Instead we enjoyed our butter beer and wandered through shops and found a ton of stuff that we had missed before. Once the park opened, we went back toward the entrance and enjoyed some tastey pastries for breakfast. The wind had really begun to blow and Jadeyn entertained himself by shooting out a small straw from a big straw against the wind! The rest of the day we spent most of the day at islands. Transformers, Shrek, rip ride rocket, etc. 

For lunch we decided to head to Hard Rock Restaurant and split a meal. We've gotten smarter realizing that there is no way we would all be able to finish three meals. Rock and Roll surrounded us, music videos entertained us and the food was nice: pulled pork sandwiches and chicken twisted Mac and cheese. Funny thing though, the waitress forgot Kevin's drink even after we reminded her, so Jadeyn reminded her again. She felt so bad, she gave it to us for free! Nice! J had made a paper airplane and had a blast sailing it into the wind on the way home.

Home to get our rain gear, and then the Jurassic Park! We went four times in a row and Jadeyn had one tiny dry spot left! Such a great ride. Well, we were already wet, so let's go to Pluto's Barge. Soaked from head to toe except for the places where Kevin and I had our jackets. We love this ride so much and its even better going on it with dry people who have no idea how wet they are going to get!

Here's where the only sad thing happened. Jadeyn saw a water sprayer and decided to jump and splash and was having so much fun when his feet went out from under him and he completely face planted on the cement. We were already wondering if he was going to lose another tooth on this trip. Blood was really pouring out of his mouth and he was so worried that his tooth was gone. It was still in there, but his lip was already swollen up like a duck and he was spitting blood. Poor guy. We got him some ice and headed back to the hotel to change into dry clothes. 

Kev and I hit Rip Ride Rocket a few times, then the evening was spent at Hogsmeade. It's so beautiful at night! All the lights go on in the tiny windows, even up high. We took the time to look in every one and discovered a cello playing on its own, a quill writing and all sort of other hidden wonders. We went on the Griffin ride several times and got awesome views of the park at night. Then, one last ride on Forbidden Journey and the park closed. Wow, how fun! We had snacks for dinner and off to bed!

Thursday February 4, 2016

Ready for the next surprise of the trip for Jadeyn: Legoland! We got to see his happy dance again!! We caught a taxi to the bus stop and waited under a Lego themed little building until it was time to load.  It was about an hour's drive to get to LegoLand but it was worth it to see how excited Jadeyn was.  Jadeyn and Kevin spread the map out and plotted our course through the park to maximize our time there.  The second we got off the bus, we raced inside to his all the best rides first.  Jadeyn is tall enough to do every single ride in the park.  Only one ride (a leg hanging coaster) was closed which was pretty disappointing, but the rest were all awesome.  Everything is awesome! (Hahaha, is the song stuck in your head now?)  Legoland is really something special. Scattered all around the park are amazing life sized Lego sculptures: Jeeps, wolves, dinosaurs!  So cool!  The Star Wars section was magnificent of course.  Whole battle scenes laid out in amazing detail.  You could study them for so long and still find awesome little tidbits you missed!   

 

At lunch we had an interesting experience.  We went into a food place and tried to order three different things only to find out they were out of all three things.  Humm, not to good there guys.  The lady behind the counter felt so bad that they weren't prepared, she told us to pick out three ice creams for free!  We were headed immediately for the Lego show, so she wrote a note on our receipt that said "Family of the Day" and told us to come back after the show for dessert!  On top of all the Mickey Moments, now we have had a Universal and a LegoLand moment!  We picked out three Dove Chocolate ice cream bars!  The show was hilarious and unique. It was all out on the lake with water skiers and jet skis.  Yes, Lego men were waterskiing!  It was a pirate themed show and was actually quite funny! 

 

 

LegoLand was built on land that used to be a botanical garden, so they left a huge portion of the park as a garden and wow, it was beautiful!  Typical lush green of Florida but with some massive vines and variety of trees.  In the very center was an 80 year old Banyan tree that covered about 200 square feet.  It just kept going and going with all its massive limbs/trunks/vines creating new trees all around it.  It was magnificent.  Circling overhead we had seen a few really large birds that sounded like falcons.  We finally saw one up close enough to see that they were Peregrine Falcons!  One had a nest at the top of one of the massive trees too!  Jadeyn was also so excited to see two small alligators in the ponds too! 

 

More rides!  There was one ride that was themed as an Egyptian pyramid type of ride, but you shoot little targets all the way through!  Tons of fun, and yes, we went several times to try and better our score.  There was a whole section with "girl legos" that Jadeyn wasn't too happy about, but I made him go on a horse ride that actually was pretty unique and intense!  Ready for the Lego Chima part?  We had decided to bring our rain coats and pants in case we wanted to do the water ride.  It was so nice and warm that we talked ourselves out of being dorks and didn't wear our rain pants.  Well, we got soaked!  It was a boat ride where you shoot various targets, other boats and people on the sidewalk, but each target you hit makes some huge water cannon shoot back at you.  I think we went about 6 times, cause after all, we were soaked anyway!  

 

We went to the Lego building place next and Jadeyn built to his heart's delight.  He made cars to race on the ramps, built structures to withstand the shaker table, and then he got to build a Hero Factory out of any parts he wanted.   One last fun thing about LegoLand: we saw two sweet little stray cats there!  We had found one outside of Jurassic Park a few days ago and thought that was pretty unusual, now we found two more!  One was so friendly too and let us pet her!  Back to the bus and home.  What a day!


Friday February 5, 2016
Well, you know Jadeyn lost a tooth on the first day of the trip, why not another?  His front tooth was so loose already and even looser from his face plant on the cement.  Kevin took a look at it and Jadeyn was willing to have him pull it out.  It came out without Jadeyn even realizing that he had yanked it!  Nicely done!  Now he is officially really growing up.  Front tooth gone!

We spent the morning following Jadeyn around using his wand all over Harry Potter world and getting good use out of it.  And a few more butter beers, a few more rides on Gringotts, Forbidden Journey, Flight of the Gryffindor!  We had lunch at one of our favorite spots: Mythos.  Men in Black next and again we topped out records.  I scored 743,150!!!!!  Okay, Kevin says I can only count it as 643,150 because I got a 100,000 bonus at the very end and he said that I had to take it out.  But, nice going!! 

We knew that the spectacular weather couldn't hold out the entire week and sure enough, by evening the drizzle started coming down.  We donned our raincoats and continued enjoying the day.   We had dinner at out on CityWalk at Vivo Italian.  Wow, I know I am easily impressed with good food, but this was really really good!  Our server was delightful too and adored Jadeyn.  My lasagna was the best I've ever had and everyone's food was perfect.  By the time we finished dinner, it was down pouring outside!  We were happy to have our raincoats and to be only a ten minute walk from the hotel.   Hard Rock might not exactly be our scene, but you can't beat it for the location.  We have been back and forth from the parks to our room so many times because it is so close. 

Saturday  February 6, 2016

Our last day of the trip. We had decided that this trip we were really going to focus on relaxing and enjoying ourselves. I think we really succeeded! However, checking our walk logger, we have averaged right at 7 miles each day! Today, as we stepped outside it was at least 10 degrees warmer than yesterday! Yay! It was still chilly enough to wear a pullover, but the sun was out. Nice!
We took our time getting to the park this morning because Saturdays are always so much busier and might as well take it easy. We still got there for the earlier hours, but this time took a turn on Despicable Me! We actually got to sit together! First time in over a year we didn't get split up! Yay! We love this ride. The minions are hilarious and there is so much heartfelt love between the girls and Gru. So sweet. Afterwards, we headed to Islands for some breakfast at an awesome pastry shop. We each got something we thought we would love, and then cut them in 3rds to share. At least that was the plan. Jadeyn quickly decided that his chocolate muffin was much more to his liking than Kevin's French toast muffin or my cream cheese pastry. He devoured his in his usual way: picking it completely to pieces and licking up all the goodness! 

So, we needed to finish off everything we wanted to do at Islands while we wandered around. Jadeyn and I spun through the xcellerator. When we checked out Pluto's Barge, we saw people shivering and going through the $5 family drier. They were hardly wet! Their hair was completely dry! What's up with that? I asked one of the workers who told us that they don't turn on the waterfalls and sprayers until it gets over 65 degrees! Funny!

Over to Diagon Alley. Wow, it was a mad house! Wall to wall wizards and muggles. Such a difference from the last few days. We decided to save Gringott's until evening, but enjoyed a hot Butter Beer! We tried our hand at Men In Black again. Kevin was determined that we could top my high score! Such a fun competition! We went over and over trying to see which aliens give the mist points and other strategies. A few times our fellow car mates were blown away by our high scores! And then one more time on the Simpsons. Although Jadeyn only gets a few of the jokes, he really likes the ride. Disney is the picture perfect park, while Universal is the rowdy, irreverent older brother! 

What to do for lunch? We want to go to Antojitos for dinner, so we went back to the hotel to polish off our leftovers. Fettuccini Carbonara and the remaining , 3/4 pound of our giant cake! It feed all three of us three times! Now that's a great dessert! 

The rains really started to come down so with raincoats off, we headed back. The rain thinned the crowd only slightly, but the white shrouded marshmallows of people wearing the plastic Universal rain ponchos were everywhere. There were a few scattered Star Tours or Disney Princess ponchos scattered around! 

Jadeyn lead the way to the Jurassic Park play area and we climbed and climbed up the ropes and investigated the caves. It didn't matter that the mist and water splashed us everywhere since we were wet already! 

Dinner at Antojitos. Back again where we started. Yummy mole enchilada and a kind of tortilla lasagna. Both were tasty and Jadeyn surprised us again by piling the salsa on every chip!
Mardi Gras parade.  So today marked the beginning of the Mardi Gras week celebration at Universal.  There was going to be a huge parade, but with the rain, we weren't sure what would happen.  Well, the show definitely went on. You know, parties just aren't our scene, so we were a little iffy on fighting the crowds to see the Mardi Gras parade. Well, we were once again impressed. The floats were amazing and so colorful and the people all decked out in their bright costumes smiled and danced away completely ignoring the rain.  Impressive.  They threw out bead necklaces of course and Jadeyn really got into it.  By the end of the parade, be had over 50 necklaces draped around his neck!

We had about 30 minutes left to absorb all of Universal until the next time around which probably won't be for many years yet.  We wandered through in the dark loving the feeling on nighttime in the park and did our final ride on Gringott's.  These three trips to Universal this year are ones certainly to never forget!

Sunday Feb 7th, 2016

SuperBowl Sunday!!!

The plane ride was such a unique experience.  More than a 3rd of the people on the plane were decked out in full on Bronco gear!!  Go Broncos!  As we boarded there were smiles and jokes all around.  Even the stewardess came on the intercom and said: your pilot is a Panthers fan, so I don't know if we'll make it in time for the game!"  Another time, during a safety announcement, she whispered at the end: go Broncos!  And the whole plane erupted in cheers!  Fun team spirit! 

We arrived at Shawn and Stephanie's house straight from the airport to watch the game.  Kevin's parents, Jessica and Stephanie's mom were all there too.  And so was the new baby!!!  Welcome Jaxson Ray Cottrell.  He is a tiny chubby delight of a baby.  The delivery went well and he has been a good baby ever since doing all the things a newborn should do: sleep at all the wrong times, cry, sleep, poop, and be cute.  Stephanie is doing well and Austin and Chloe and proud big siblings.  It was great to catch up, hear about the baby, tell them about our awesome trip and then sit down with fingers crossed for the game.

 

Remember 2 years ago at the Super Bowl where the Broncos humiliated themselves against the SeaHawks?  It started with the opening hike flying right over Manning's head and all down hill from there on.  Ending at 48-8.  Ouch!  This one went so much better.  All season we had been hearing that the Broncos have the Number 1 defense and at times they really showed it, but not in the last few games.  Well, they took over this game!  Forcing turnovers, running turnovers for touchdowns, rattling the Panther Quarterback in ways he has never felt before.  It was great.  So many times we cheered so loud forgetting that there was a newborn in the room!  So, in the end the Broncos won 24-10!  Yay!!  It was a great end for Manning career.  The comparison of the two QBs was so drastically different that it was a really good example of sportsmanship.  When we lost so terribly two years ago, Manning still stood up in a suit and tie and answered the media's questions even after the humiliating loss.  This time, the Panther's QB hung his head, wouldn't look at anyone, answered with one and two words and finally walked out of the interview.  Wow.  Good role model.  Anyway, great game, great thing for Colorado and a ton of fun!

DisneyWorld and Universal Studios November 2015

DisneyWorld and Universal Trip #2

Thursday  November 6th, 2015

Soo, what do you do when you have annual passes to a place in Florida and only got to use them on one trip?  You find a reason to go again!!  It worked out perfectly: there was an Optometry Conference at the Grand Floridian at Disney so we could do a few days there.  Then head on down to Universal Studios to use our passes.  We arrived late last night after a nice but bumpy flight.  Hopped on the Disney Magic Express and made it to the hotel.  Ahh, the Grand Floridian.  Such a beautiful hotel!   We bought our refillable mug and drank three hot cocoas before bed!  Animal Kingdom was on the menu today! It was wonderful to get to go there again since we had to skip it last trip. Mt. Everest was classic and so much fun with Jadeyn along. I had forgotten just how dark the backward trip was! So fun! Next the Kilimanjaro safari before it got too hot and the animals got sleepy in the heat.   Kevin had to head back to the hotel to attend a few hours of his conference (you know, the whole reason we came back to Florida!) while Jadeyn and I got to hang out at Animal Kingdom for awhile longer.  We watched the bird show with owls and hawks swooping over our heads.  Jadeyn even joined me to watch Nemo.  It is such a sweet and tender musical and I love it every time!  Jadeyn loved Dinosaur again and especially exploring the playground afterwards.  And then of course his favorite: the dig site!  We spent a good amount of time unearthing a giant dino skeleton!

 

We met Kevin at the Contemporary Hotel for dinner at the California Grill.  Tasty food there!  Then we headed to EPCOT to take advantage of the late magic hours.  EPCOT is celebrating the Food and Wine Festival and so it was crazy busy!  Fun to go around and try all the country's foods and also to people watch!  So we started out at 8am and made it until 10pm.  9.2 miles today!  We are definitely back on vacation mode!

Friday  November 7th 2015
So, what better way to start the day than a mad dash to compete in Toy Story Mania!? We caught the bus to Hollywood Studios and waited for the rope drop. This ride is so popular that it will usually have the longest wait times in the park almost immediately, but it's worth it. Waiting in line though, is pure pleasure. We become toys ourselves and everywhere we turn we see giant versions of our favorite nostalgic toys! Etch a sketch, Lincoln logs, massive monkeys above our heads linking arms, we are walking g on the squares of candy land and chutes and ladders. I am not quite the competitive type, but I have a reputation to defend in this game. Wow, by the end our arms were so exhausted from pulling the trigger, but when the scores were revealed, it couldn't have been closer: 142,900 to 14,3400! One more broken plate and Kevin would have beat me! So, he tried to make the excuse that be didn't have his 3D glasses on for half the time, but I still beat him! By the time we finished that one ride, its wait was 45 min! 

 

 Ready for one of the best rides in the park? Star Tours! Yay! We took our tradition photos of Jadeyn and I in front of the Tatooine Traders and Kevin and Jadeyn on the Speeder Bike. The giant Walker made shooting sounds and blasted steam out of its turrets this time! And, we don't think they were doing the Jedi Training because of all the construction for the new Star Wars land. Then off the fly to parts unknown. Okay, so we know them well enough to make a guess. We were right on both of the two adventures:
the icy world oh Both followed by the getting caught in the clutches of that 'bigger fish' in the underwater world of the Gunguns. Oh that ride is so much fun!
Across the park now for the rockin' world of Arrowsmith! One of Jadeyn favorite coasters now! He did still get a little nervous when he saw the stretch limo car in front of us blast off like a bullet! We loved it again, listening to his voice hollering in delight!
Starring Roles: a delightfully delicious tradition of ours: a double chocolate peanut butter cupcake and red velvet cupcake. Oh my, fingerlicking good!
One last right before Kevin had to head off to his conference (what a dutiful soul!) Hollywood Tower of Terror!!! Jadeyn still refuses to go on it after his first time two years ago terrified the socks off him, so we aren't pushing him. The fast pass worked beautifully and we took turns. After our rides, we both agreed that they had changed something: my ride was totally awesome and seemed longer with more lifts and drops. Kevin's was longer too but with a peak at the ghostly family in the middle making him thing the rude was over before blasting him straight up again to continue! Sweet!

 

Just me and Jadeyn then to fill a few minutes. Well, back to Star Tours, right? This time, Wookie planet! Then something totally new: we got chased down by a Bounty Hunter in an asteroid belt. Then we escaped into the clutches of Darth Vader in the Death Star. Safely escaping, we returned the rebel spy! Waiting in the line is an experience all on its own surrounded by funny droids.  In line again! This time there was a 'slight malfunction' on loading the star speeders so it took a little longer. We got to fly in the pod races, and then got attacked in a battle by buzz droids. We shook them off and dove into the depth of Corriscant to escape them.

 

The bus ride back to the hotel took almost an hour for Jadeyn and I thanks to two wheelchair scooters, an unruly family and a girl who was blind, but we made it back with time left to hit the pool. We played in the Mad Hatter's spray and play area first and then moved to the Sandy beach. Pure white fine sand on the shore of the lake. Army barricades built with sea kelp to be washed away by the waves. Then off to the big pool to try out the slide.  Jadeyn joined Kevin at the vender exhibits and scored a nice set of marbles (not sure why there were marbles!?) Them Kevin had two more hours of class and we played at the hotel.

 

 Evening: Magic Kingdom. Holy smokes: its Christmas. A 40 foot Christmas tree greeted us and wreaths and garland, and giant nut crackers and Christmas music! Wow. And every inch of the castle was covered in perfect white lights. No kidding. Magnificent! Wow! We have always wanted to see Disney at Christmas. The Jungle Cruise was a riot at Christmas time! All the jokes were puns on Christmas, even the caged tarantula had a tiny Santa hat on! Thunder Mountain, a blast again, all our favorites. We had a unique experience. Kevin got Jadeyn an ice cream while I was at haunted mansion. Jadeyn ordered it, they said he was such a sweet and we'll behaved kid that he got a Mickey moment: ice cream for free! We had never heard of that before. It was so special. The greatest part was a little while later when we stopped by Gaston's for an ooey gooey cinnamon roll, the worker gave Jadeyn his own Lafrue's Brew 'on Mickey!' Two 'Mickey Moments' in one night!

 

 One of the coolest parts of the night came right outside Gaston's. The fireworks started and it get like we were in the middle of a battle! The stars blasting over the castle on one side and the massive regular fireworks on the other side of us. The concussion was amazing. After that we enjoyed some peaceful classic moments: Winnie the Pooh, Dumbo, Goofy's Barnstormer and ended it with two rides on Thunder Mountain. Electric parade and then a close up walk around the Incredible Castle.  It was incredible to have the castle practically to ourselves.  Usually there are so many people everywhere that its crazy to get a picture without other people in it.  Tonight was totally peaceful and quiet at the castle.  Wow! It was midnight by the time we got back to the room. Jadeyn was out on my shoulder before we got out of the park.

Sunday November 9th 2015
Sleep in! Well, at least until 6:30. Kevin got one hour of class in before we headed to Magic Kingdom. Last night the wait was too long last night so we walked as fast as we could this morning to get there. What? Already 50 min?! You're kidding, but we had to do it. Turned out it was only 15! Nice. Then Thunder Mountain, another "Jingle cruise." Oh the jokes were classic. My favorite was at the very end when the skipper said: if u liked the trip, my name is Jenny, if you didn't, my name is Elsa, and you need to let it go!" Splash Mountain. So its 80 degrees, so we donned our rain ponchos that we are carrying, or do we just get wet. We decided to wing it and see if we get drenched. We love this ride. We even sing zippity do da to Jadeyn almost every night. Plunge on down and we actually escaped saturation pretty well! It was 10:30 before Jadeyn piped up that he hadn't had breakfast yet! Off to Gaston's for two giant cinnamon rolls: one for me and Kev. One for Jadeyn! So yummy. Gaston arrived just as we were finishing. No real fanatical ladies this time, but fun to watch. 

 

 After quite a bit more fun, we decided to switch gears and head to Epcot for the food festival. So many countries are represented even beyond the ones that are permanently there. We went from booth to booth to see what sounded interesting or might taste delicious. We made some excellent choices with... Yup we walked our legs off again all around the world. There were some breathtaking chocolate sculptures too! We had almost decided to go back to the hotel for a moments rest when we realized it really would only be a moment. Well, might as well go straight to Hollywood Studios for dessert!
Tragedy! starting Rolls closed at 4pm, we were 10 min late! So sad. So ice cream sundaes for dessert/dinner. Another Mickey Moment coming up! Jadeyn asked for extra hot fudge. Not only did they give him a separate cup of more hot fudge, but they gave him two brownies! Sweet!
imagination station,
Hollywood Studio Star Tours last run, Fantasmic light show, Osborne light show, packed bus
The Osborne light show. There is really no way to fully describe this experience. The workers escorted us around to the entrance so we could see it all at one in its glory. A whole two blocks of street covered in lights. Every square inch literally covered in lights and all coordinated to dance to the music! Completely overwhelming and magical! Then the snow started to fall and wow, it was a wonderland if Christmas.


Animal Kingdom. Wandering through this incredibly green and lush park is really a treat. We decided that today we would just enjoy it all and really soak it in. That didn't stop us from going on Everest 8 times! Jadeyn finally really conquered his inner Coaster and circled us back into line each time we finished!! We loved the safari again bouncing over the ruts in the road. Lion King Wes so much fun and amazing as usual. 

 Dinner at Boma at Animal Kingdom Lodge. We have never been to the lodge before and thought this would be the perfect reason to go. It was a beautiful African themed building, but the really cool part was the Savannah out back where you could watch the giraffes and other animals graze. Dinner was an African Buffet. It had a huge selection and we like almost everything we tried and some of it was pretty unique. Delicious desserts too but we were stuffed and had to roll out way out of there.
Buffet: in the bathroom, can a person really die from his belly exploding? Good cause I don't want to die, I'm only 7. What, were going to magic kingdom? I can't go on any rides, I'm doomed! When j and k's bellies were pooching out so much they thought they would explode, Jadeyn asked why moms wasn't poking out. He said it was because of those two humps. What are they even for anyway. We explained and he said ooohh, like zebras nurse their babies. That's weird.

Monday November 10, 2015

Off to Magic Kingdom. We had just a little bit of time to squeeze in some more magic before our final surprise of the evening. We explored the Swiss Family Robinson tree house, went on Jungle Cruise again, pirates, joked about doing the Tiki room(no way!) And finally made our way over to Tomorrowland for....drumroll please: the Wishes Dessert Party! Sweet! We sat on the terrace above all the crazy crowds, sipped sparkling apple cider and ate all the desserts we could eat! We got to watch the Electric Parade, the spectacular light show on the castle and the Wishes fireworks show! So special. It was a truly magical way to end a great day especially when Jadeyn finally fell asleep on our shoulders.

Tuesday, November 11th 2015

 On our way to Epcot today because the goal of the day was to make it into Test Track! Will we make it? We waited for the rope drop as we watched quite a few people go in early...how did that happen? Once through, Jadeyn practically pulled us through the crowds and we made it to find another 50 minute wait! No worries, we're doing it anyway! Jadeyn was so excited to build his own vehicle. Waiting in line wasn't too bad because of all the interactive stuff to do along the way. Jadeyn build his for speed and Kevin build his for off road and speed. Once on the track we blasted through obstacles, slid through bad weather and finally opened it up on the open road! So much fun and Jadeyn yelled and yelled. In the end, his car took top overall the other cars in our vehicle! He was so excited. Next? Mission Space! J wasn't too sure about this one, but I convinced him that he will breeze through it. Kevin sat this one out. We were briefed on our duties on the space shuttle. One Jadeyn saw the contraption, he understood how it worked and he was excited to go. The whole ship spins so fast giving you the centrifugal force of feeling like you are blasting into space.

 

 We hadn't spent a lot of time at Innoventions and it was really cool! We checked out the weather station and safety during hurricanes and blizzards. We got to design our townhouse and see how it held up. The other part we enjoyed was the Healthy Habits. We each were given an healthy assignment to battle against bad habits. We were hydration, healthy nutrition and activity. It was pretty fun to blast down and battle against the bad habits! Turtle Talk with Crush! Every time we have experienced a conversation with Crush we have laughed so hard. This Crush was awesome! All us parental units sat on the benches while our offspring sat sub level! His jokes were classic!

Behind the Seeds!! The last time we were at Epcot, we discovered that there was a tour here, and we were so excited to be able to do it! They took us behind all the plants and greenhouses to teach us the details of their discoveries an growing techniques. It was so cool to see the tomato plants wound around and around, some of them a good 15 feet long. Most of the plants are hooked into their hydroponics system and we saw the fish and the water dispersal system. One of the coolest details was their battle against the miner bug that lays its eggs inside the leaves and can take our a whole orchard! They discovered a natural solution by accident. A little miner wasp flew in and lays its eggs right inside the bug larva. Problem solved. Now the grow their own tiny wasps to take care of. We were really proud of Jadeyn for being brave enough to ask so many questions. The funniest was about how they bred a fast growing fish with a good tasting fish. He asked: did they make them mate? The tour guide was hilarious as she delicately answered and then gave us a thumbs up asking: are we okay with that answer parents?
The tour was totally worth it and was perfect for us!

We were pretty hungry by 2:45 when the tour ended so we wandered over to the countries and had former Mac n cheese with bacon, which actually had quite a kick to it, and raviolis at another country. We had about three hours before our reservations tonight and I guess we hadn't walked enough yet, so we decided to take a 'stroll' to Hollywood Studios. It took us on a path past a lot of the other resort hotels which were pretty cool to see. At HS, we were able to squeeze in a few of our favorites one last time: Arrowsmith! And then, dusk brought on the Christmas lights! We got to walk down the Osborne lights one more time and experience the magic. Wow!

We took to boat back to Epcot and on the way Jadeyn room a nap. We decided to let him sleep because we have carried him home so many nights, maybe a few minutes of sleep will help. We had reservations at La Hacienda right on the lake front where we would be able to watch the firework show on the water. Dinner was quite tasty and the show was great. We got to leave with the masses of people and pile onto the monorail with everyone. Whew! Big day today and a wonderful way to end our Disney trip!



Wednesday November 12th 2015 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
Waking up this morning I found myself singing to Garth Brooks: oh, I am sore in strange places! We have walked well over 8 miles each day, going from 7 or 8 am to 11 or 12 each night! After these 5 full days, we will need a tiny bit of downtime at Universal!
We are staying at the Royal Pacific this time which is just a little bit away from the Portofino we stayed at last time. It is beautiful! A Polynesian flair with incredible carved wood statues and solid stone elephant statues. So cool. Our room wasn't ready when we checked in, so, what to do but head for the park!

We love the feel of these parks, totally different than Disney, but just as fun!
Highlights of the day: Jurassic Park times 5! When we were here last, it was bring refurbished and Jadeyn was almost devastated about that. Now it's all brand spanking new for us, new and ready for us. We wore our rain ponchos so we could go over and over again, and we are planning on getting wet tomorrow. The dinosaurs were awesome, knocking our boat off tour into the restricted area. And the, the reason we came back to Universal: the T Rex! Before just his head growled above our boat, now it's his complete massive body standing above the boat and snapping at us before we plunged down! Jadeyn was exhilarated! 

.......Men In Black. Oh yeah, I still whooped Kevin! 249,000 to 223,000. It's nice to still have a bit of competition in me! Spiderman, a total classic and really fun. I think Stan Lee shows up in it in four different places. Transformers was great again too. ET made us smile, and we even gave code names for him to day at the end! Thrasher, Gru and Krylon.
We stayed at the park until 6pm then headed back to have dinner at the hotel club lounge. While there, wouldn't you know it, but Karate Kid had just started and Jadeyn has been wanting to see it. We continued watching it back in the room sprawled out on the beds. Great day!

Thursday. November 13, 2015

 To the park for the early entry. We took the awesome pathway along the river and went straight to Hogsmeade. Gotta get right on Forbidden Journey before the lines get long. Such a fun ride! It's one where you can just lean right into the picture and really be a part of the quidditch match and be flying right alongside everyone. Jadeyn did much better with the Dementors after having read the book. Whew! We spent a good amount of time this morning simply enjoying the Potter world and watching Jadeyn work on his spells.

The plan today is to get wet, really wet! So, we went around the park hitting whatever ride caught our interest up until lunchtime. The Simpsons ride was an absolute riot as usual. Neither Kevin nor myself grew up watching the Simpsons, but we have since watched enough episodes to really get the humor. Jadeyn on the other hand, was just like yesterday at Krusty Burger: I don't get it! Terminator is still a great classic! We forget every time we go on it just how enjoyable it is and loved sharing it with Jadeyn. Rip Ride Rocket: definitely on my top favorite coasters! That coaster flies and lets you sail right along with it! We left our seats a little loose so we could really catch air and fly. Mummy: Jadeyn still won't go on this ride and I am totally fine with that. We did child swap and had a blast. It's a pretty creepy ride and parts are whipping you around in the pitch black! Shrek 4D. So funny. You know, we started thinking about the hero's I. Universal compared to the Disney ones. Universal's are quite a bit more in the rebellious or mischievous side!
We had lunch at Mythos and wow, it was great again! I had the Bleu Cheese Crusted Pork with apple slaw and braised cabbage. Kevin had a Pad Thai shrimp and chicken. We shared with Jadeyn and added a spinach wonton wrap to the mix.
Ready to get soaked! We found a locker for our stuff and headed straight for Pluto's Plunge. Since we knew we were going to get soaked, and were prepared for it, we were able to totally allow ourselves to have a blast. We went on this ride three times in a row, each time getting to know the other people in our raft. We hooted and hollered and got soaked. Next, was Popeye and Pluto's Barges.   It's a round boat ride where usually whoever is the unlucky one gets soaked. As this ride progressed, it for wetter and wetter until, there wasn't any hope of having any dry spots left! Again, getting to know our boat mates was fun. And yet. We were saturated. One more time on Pluto then we had to figure out how to dry off a bit. I know! Dr. Doom' Drop tower! Yup, it certainly helped! Back to Diagon let for a hot Butter Beer. It hit the spot. Jadeyn made a special discovery. He could two secret spells! He was so excited to know about some that not many people even knew what to look for. At Hogsmeade, Kevin and I took turns on the Dueling Dragons. Back to Diagon and back again the other way right before park close. We make it to Escape From Greengot's. We practically had the place to ourselves. Normally teeming with people, the peacefulness was wonderful! Perfect was
to the night!
Back at the hotel, we enjoyed desserts at the Clubhouse. Yummm!



Friday November 14, 2015
Wow! Did we ever sleep in; almost 7:15 by the time we rolled out of bed. Nice! Breakfast was quite nice at the club and then off to the park. Our goal was to get to the Raptor experience right when the whole park opened, but dang it: the experience didn't open until 10am! So...we went on Buckbeak's ride and checked out the shops. Humm, what to do with the remaining few minutes? Jurrasic Park three more times! Yay!
The raptor Experience was incredible. We were the first group, so the raptor hadn't even come out yet. Her name was Roe and she was 8 years old. We couldn't believe just how life like she was. She would listen to her trainer, them disobey and he would have to call her attention back again. Wow! So cool!
Minion Ride. Oh, so many smiles there! We actually got to sit together! We've been on this ride probably 8 times and always were split up!
Rip Ride Rocket again, but this one trying out the secret code for extra songs. You hold down the main logo for 10 seconds, then enter your song number that you had to look up before you got on the ride. I think I might have entered mine wrong because I didn't even recognize my song. Had an awesome flight though. But when I got off, I ran out to Kevin and Jadeyn and begged to go again! So much fun!
....
We had a scoop of ......ice cream in Diagon Allley. We did Curdled Cream this time. It had a cream cheese type flavor to it. This year we have had ice cream from there three times and, yeah, the flavors are very creative, Jadeyn hasn't liked any of them!

Minions, Rip Ride twice, lunch back at hotel, street breakdancers, Forbidden Journey, and Greengot's Bank, ice cream, mini golf!
...Highlight of the night: we did miniature golfing on CityWalk! Pretty cool. We did the "aliens" themed side and it was so clever. The course was hilarious with all the aliens and then downright tricky. Some places would drop you in a hole and end up somewhere totally different, or drop your ball into a contraption that transported it up a spiral thing to move it to the next spot. The hardest had the hole on a rotating floor!



Saturday November 15, 2015
Final full day. Wow, we have filled every day so full and have come home wiped out every night. Every day of this trip we have logged over 8 miles, even on our half day! Pretty awesome. Today was actually the chilliest day we have had. It was only going to be a high of 78,but it was the light breeze that kept the goose bumps coming for the first few hours. Heading to the park today, we had a few goals. Have a butter beer and go on Jurassic Park. Unfortunately, there were really long lines for the drink (meaning 25+ people!). So we wandered through enjoying the park and discovering new things for Jadeyn. We took him up to Popeye's ship where he could use the water blasters on the unsuspecting people on the raft ride. Remember how cold it was? Well, these people hadn't gotten saturated yet, so they really hollered when we got them! Fun! We watched the Raptor Encounter for a little bit and were still so amazed by it. In the Dinosaur Discovery Center Jadeyn got a special experience. There was a new baby raptor hatching from her egg. It was very realistic. They said that one of the witnesses of the birth gets to name the new baby. Jadeyn's hand shot up so fast. He got to name her Thrasher (of course) and even got a birth certificate with his name on it too! He was so proud! 

We came back for lunch and Jadeyn and I hit the pool. The water was nice and warm. It made it so it felt warmer in the water than out (at least if you are wet and out of the water). We had a ton of fun playing volleyball with a beach ball. Jadeyn came up with a game. It you touched the red side, you were Sith, if you touched blue, you were Jedi, and yellow was a Bounty Hunter. Pretty clever. We even went out to the beach of the Lagoon to play. Jadeyn especially enjoyed the ducks that kept landing a swimming g around us in the pool. He loved going under and watching their webbed feet!
About 15 minutes before we were going to get out of the pool Jadeyn suddenly started hollering. Somehow, a bee had gotten on his hand and was struggling to survive and stung him right on the palm. Poor guy! I held onto his little hand to keep him from touching it and we waded over to the lifeguard. He did really good with Jadeyn and put on his blue gloves to pull the stinger out. I know it had to hurt pretty bad but Jadeyn played bravely until we got out. At the park Kevin and I enjoyed The Mummy and Rip Ride Rocket, then finally got Jadeyn an icee so he could ice his palm a bit on it too. 

Men In Black. I really do think this is one of my favorite rides here. Kevin. Thinks it is hilarious because I normally am not competitive. What can I say! We went through once and then Kevin popped out another little known secret about the park: you can ask for a behind the scenes tour of the Men In Black facility! He asked our ride attendant who said: sure, do you want to do it now? We were escorted through a few doors where we waited for our official "man in black" complete with the sunglasses. He took us to a few rooms and finally out to the immigration floor where "Bskrgd and Bob" were. We got to sit in the funky chairs and even sign our names in the immigration log book! So cool! Then, our guide told us some of his favorite scoring secrets. The biggest secret was to look for the pug dog and shoot his collar. Next to shoot our own transponder instead of the one in the car opposite to us. We just had to go again now! We asked for the "pug side" and did our best. I scored 415,000! No way!!! We couldn't tell if the pug helped or not, but the transponder did along with us deciding to aim at a target and keep shooting at it instead of constantly switching around. (We still let Jadeyn get the 100,000 bonus at the end!)

Back at the park after dinner, we donned our rain ponchos for a night trip down the river. Awesome! Another butter beer, and then enjoyed a few more night rides before the park suddenly became filled with people. There is a concert tonight of somebody we hadn't heard of before and as a result, the park closed at 7pm. We people watched all the concert goers and finally had a peaceful walk home. We grabbed cookies and milk at the lounge and ate them in bed before sleep. Whew, another full day.


Sunday.  November 16, 2015  
Ahh. The last day of our vacation. Normally the last day is filled with travel to get back home and not much fun. Not today! Our flight isn't until almost 4pm, so there was plenty of time to enjoy the parks again. Up and at 'em early to pack everything in our suitcases, grab a quick breakfast and drop our luggage off at the front desk to hold for us. Then, off we go. We figured that in all the days we have been here, we have only taken the boat twice, so we hopped on and enjoyed the river. We started again in Hogsmeade for the early hours and did everything we wanted: Forbidden Journey, and all the spells for Jadeyn. Then we caught the Hogwarts express to Diagon Alley to do the same. One last ride on Escape from Gringott's was interesting. There were quite a few people in line and there must have been a breakdown or delay because it took awhile. But it allowed us to get to listen to the banter between all the paintings in the walls. Normally we go through the line so fast that we miss a lot of it. It was great especially when somebody leaves his painting and joins another painting! We wandered through Diagon and did spells, bought two butter beers (a hot for me and regular for Kevin and Jadeyn!) Jadeyn really relished the idea of knowing a secret spell that most people didn't know about. We also loved watching the fountain that randomly shoots out water and were dying to see it soak someone!
We each had a request for today: Jadeyn's was Gringott's and Minions, Kevin's was Rip Ride Rocket, and mine was Men In Black. We fit them all in! We really wanted to take the tricks we learned yesterday and top yesterday's score of 415,000! We came close: I got to 343,000 twice! So here are the secrets that worked: shooting the pug's collar supposedly did something for us, but we're not sure what, finding a single target and shooting it until you can't see it any longer, and finally, shooting your own transponder instead of the one on the car in front of you. Awesome! Minions was so much fun again and really made us laugh! The last ride was Rip Ride Rocket. We did express pass child swap and both rode it within 10 minutes! Brisk walk back to the hotel where we took the black car service to the airport. That means the trip really is over. What an incredibly memorable trip! Wow! We figured a very conservative estimate of the miles we walked was 72+ miles!?! We did a minimum of 8 miles on each of our 9 days and some of the Disney days were a lot more! Every mile was a memory!
We had about two hours to kill at the airport and Jadeyn and I filled them with getting all of his homework done! We did it! He finished up his test during the first part of the flight and then could kick back the rest of the flight.