Our Trip: Hollywood Studios

After a full travel day and 2 full theme park days, the kids were all dragging a little by our Hollywood Studios day.  They struggled waking up, Briggs was complaining of his stomach hurting (which thankfully subsided once we entered the park), and as we were waiting in the long line to enter the park, I was second-guessing my decision to bounce everyone out of bed early in order to get to the park for opening.

Thankfully, things looked up as soon as we entered the park.

Hollywood Studios is the most frustrating of the Disney parks.  It is the smallest park, but it has a lot of the most popular rides without many smaller rides or other things to round out the day.  Therefore, it gets long lines, can feel very congested in certain areas (like Toy Story Land), and can be difficult to navigate and get things accomplished without getting frustrated.

We had decided to purchase Genie + for our Hollywood Studios day, which is the new paid line skipping service that replaced Fast Pass.  However, I was super frustrated when I woke up before 7 in the morning to try to get reservations for our first and top priority ride, Slinky Dog Dash.  Disney's app had some issues and by the time I got things working about 30 seconds after 7, all the reservations for the day were gone.  Thankfully I found a very helpful guest services lady at the park who gave us an any-time reservation for the ride.

We started our day riding the new Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railroad ride at park opening while the line was not too long.  It was lots of fun!  Then the kids and Zach went to the Lightening McQueen show while I tried to work out our Slinky Dog Dash issue with guest services.

There are no full parades at Disney right now, but they have pop up calvalcades, which are just like mini parades with a few characters.  We enjoyed seeing the calvalcade with the Incredibles, Edna Mode, and Sully from Monster's Inc while we were having a snack and putting on our sunscreen.

Because of the long lines for all the rides, we did rides with our Genie + reservations and then filled in our free time with shows, characters, and exploring the new Star Wars land.  We went to the Frozen Show and the Beauty and the Beast show.  And Zach enjoyed the Indiana Jones show, although the kids chose not to go to that one.

Slinky Dog Dash was a favorite for all the kids, although Adelie was in tears before the ride, not sure she wanted to do it.  But Staley was very caring, held her hand through the ride, and Adelie said it was a favorite of the day.  We also did Toy Story Mania and Alien Swirling Saucers with Genie + later in the day as well.

Hard to tell with the hair in her face, but it looks like a smile.

Briggs liked it so much that he and I were able to do it a second time using Zach's Genie + reservation that he didn't use.

The new Star Wars land was a highlight for Zach.  Although we are not a big Star Wars family, the detail and immersive experience of the land was still impressive.

We all did the ride Milennium Falcon: Smugglers Run.  It made Zach feel motion sick, but the rest of us thought it was fun.  Each person had a job on the flight.  Zach and I were pilots (I don't think I was very good at it, which might be part of the reason Zach felt sick), Staley and Briggs were gunners, and Adelie was an engineer.  I think having a job gave the ride a more fun and different feel from many of the other simulator-type rides.

Zach treated himself to a fun Sprite in a round bottle as his Disney souvenir.  He really enjoyed checking out Star Wars land, seeing all the ships and droids, watching the Storm Troopers, and just enjoying the incredibly themed and immersive land.  Zach is the only one in the family who has watched all the newer Star Wars movies.

And we had to get our traditional Chewbacca and Briggs picture, even if it was different from our previous trips.  Chewbacca has always been one of Briggs' favorite characters to meet, even when he was just an infant.

And we met lots of characters during the day too, like Minnie...

Olaf...

Fancy Nancy...

Pluto...

and even Doc McStuffins.  There were absolutely no lines for most of these characters so the kids were happy to meet them, even if they aren't favorites anymore.

While filling time in our day waiting for our Genie + reservations, we also took the opportunity to ride the skyliner from Hollywood Studios to Caribbean Beach resort and back.  Riding the skyliner was one of Briggs' top requests for our entire week.  It is a fun and relaxing way to travel.

We packed a lunch for our Hollywood Studios day, enjoyed a mid-afternoon snack of mickey ice cream treats, and then had yummy sandwiches from Woody's Lunchbox for dinner.

By late afternoon, Staley hit a wall.  She was exhausted, didn't want to eat her dinner, and was in tears about just wanting to go back to the townhouse.  We rested in the shade, coaxed some dinner into her, calmed her down, and then just walked around the park a little as she decided whether or not to stay or just head back.

Staley felt better with a little dinner in her, rallied, and decided to stick it out so we could go on Rockin Roller Coaster while Zach and the littles watched the Lightning McQueen show again.

We had the opportunity to ride it twice in a row (using the fast passes from the rest of the family), but Staley changed her mind right before we got on the second time.  She felt a little woozy after the first ride and she decided getting right back on again might not be the best idea.

With about an hour before park closing, Zach took the opportunity to jump in line for Rise of the Resistance, the premier ride experience in Star Wars land.  The kids didn't want to go, but Zach thought it was amazing!

Zach said the ride was just like being plopped down in the middle of a movie.  He said it was incredible!  Since there are many things we enjoy at Disney that Zach can't do, I was so glad that he had the opportunity to experience this.

The kids were all getting tired, but were troopers while waiting for Zach to do his ride.  We played with glow sticks, looked at pictures from the trip so far, and just chilled out in a quiet spot at the edge of Toy Story Land.

After 12 hours in a theme park for the third straight day, things are bound to get a little crazy!

When Zach finished his ride, we had enough time left to jump into line for Toy Story Mania as our last ride of the day.

By the end of the day, we were all exhausted!  We had walked 10-13 miles every day for the past 3 days, spent full days from park opening to park close at theme parks over the past 3 days, and experienced way more sun and warmth than we had in months.  It had been another good day, but we were all happy to have a rest day the following day where we could sleep in, relax, and recoup so we could be ready for the remainder of our trip.

Our Trip: Epcot

We all slept really well in our townhouse.  Because Epcot has a slightly later opening time than the other parks, we were able to sleep in a bit, eat breakfast, and still make it to the park for park opening.

After our two cooler days, our Epcot day started in the 50's, but was sunny and low 70s by the afternoon.  It was perfect!

Epcot is one of our very favorite parks for its great mix of things to do.  We enjoy the rides, but also love walking around the various countries, seeing the shows and outdoor performers, enjoying the good food and fun snacks, and just appreciating the atmosphere.

The Festival of the Arts was going on at Epcot while we were there.  We enjoyed watching the acrobats (we told Adelie this is something she could do with her incredible flexibility), checking out the chalk drawings and art tents, and listening to a Broadway series concert with a woman who played Ursela on Broadway and a man who played Timon, Chef Louie, and the Duke of Weselton on Broadway.  They were fabulous!  Watching the concert was one of Staley's top requests for the day.

And although Adelie was being shy about it, we enjoyed talking to the acrobats after their performance to find out how they were able to turn their skills with strength and flexibility into a career.

There were 50 of these gold statues throughout all the Disney parks as part of Disney's 50th anniversary celebration.  My kids loved trying to find all the statues in the parks...and then asking to get their pictures taken with them.

While wandering around World Showcase, we enjoyed watching the drummers in Japan, eating gelato and shaved ice in Italy and Japan, checking out the American Adventure show and eating lunch at Regal Eagle (one of our new favorite meals) in the America pavilion, meeting Anna and Elsa in Norway, and, of course, spending lots of time checking out the miniature trains in Germany.  We always have to make sure to schedule ample time into our day for these trains.  One member of our group could literally spend all day watching them.

I loved watching his excitement as he chased the trains around, pointed out all his favorites, took in all the details, and made friends with other train enthusiasts.

Traditional meet and greets with hugs and autograph books are not back yet, but the kids still enjoyed the modified meet and greets that we did.  Staley was our child who was most adamant about doing some of these meet and greets.  I love that she still enjoys them!

Zach had a quick virtual meeting that he slipped away for during our Epcot day.  Right after his meeting, he happened to see this friend out and about.

We fit in all our favorite rides throughout the day with minimal wait times.  We all rode Soarin' (one of my very favorites) right when the park opened, Nemo (twice), Journey into Imagination, Living with the Land, and Spaceship Earth.  The kids were not interested in riding the new Ratatoullie ride, which would have been a long wait had we chosen to ride it.

We fit in some shows that we had never done before, like The American Adventure (which was very well done and also educational, making me feel less bad about taking my kids out of school for a week) and Awesome Planet (which we also really enjoyed).  We also did Turtle Talk with Crush, which is one of our family favorites.  And to make it even more fun, Briggs was singled out to answer some questions and talk with Crush.  And we also enjoyed checking out the aquarium in the building with Nemo and Crush.  Unfortunately, the manatee tank was being cleaned so we did not get to see the manatees.

We had dinner at Sunshine Seasons and enjoyed eating a little healthier with salmon and fresh veggies from Epcot's own gardens and fishery.  (Well, Briggs chose the mac and cheese and Adelie just wanted PB & J, so I guess we were 3/5 on the healthier front.)

The girls really wanted to do the Frozen ride and Briggs really wanted to do Test Track, two of the more popular rides that have long wait times throughout the day.  We waited until the last hour of the day and then split up to get in our last rides.  Zach took the girls on Frozen while Briggs and I did Test Track together.  We were able to do both rides twice, finishing the ride and getting right back into line a few minutes before the park closed.  

Zach and the girls finished their rides in time to catch the end of the nighttime fireworks and projection show while they were waiting for Briggs and I to finish up.

Another successful park opening to park closing day in the books.  Although we walked over 13 miles, we had a great day with beautiful weather and the opportunity to just enjoy the day and the park that we all love.  With each subsequent trip, Epcot makes its case for being our favorite park.  It's hard to supplant Magic Kingdom, but Epcot is a very close second.

Our Trip: Universal

Although we had cancelled our previous two Disney trips, the kids were never aware of our plans.  In the same way, in this time of uncertainty, we never told the kids about this trip either.  Instead, on the day we left, we woke them up at 5:00 a.m. and informed them we were planning to have an epic family day.  We then set out a Harry Potter shirt and a pair of mouse ears, letting them know we had already chosen their outfits for the day.  At first confused and then incredulous, they became really excited when they finally realized what we were doing.

Such a fun surprise!

The kids got up and ready quickly and we were on our way to the airport by 5:30, eating breakfast in the car on the way.  After arriving in Orlando, we got our rental car and went straight to our Universal hotel.  We had decided to add one Universal day to our trip since all 3 kids really like Harry Potter so we could experience the Harry Potter areas in the Universal parks.

Since my initial plan of swimming after arrival to our hotel was thwarted by the cold weather, we instead headed over to the Universal CityWalk to find something to eat for an early dinner (since we hadn't actually had a meal since our car breakfast and airplane snacks.)  The CityWalk is just a shopping and dining area directly adjacent to the Universal parks.

Although it was a short walk from our hotel to the CityWalk, Briggs really wanted to take the boat instead.

We walked around the CityWalk area, realized that wait times for all the restaurants were elevated even though it was only mid-afternoon, put our name in for a restaurant, ate some soft pretzels and popcorn to curb our hunger until we could get seated at a restaurant, and looked in a few different stores to pass the time.

We then ate at the Chocolate Emporium, where the food was good and the milkshakes were HUGE!  We were split as a family; some of us preferred the mint shake and others preferred the cookies and cream.  I was team mint.

After dinner, we grabbed the Voodoo Donuts we had mobile ordered for breakfast the next day, walked back to our hotel (since the boat line was really long), settled into our hotel room, showered, and went to bed early to get ready for our big Universal day the next day.

We started our early morning with donuts in our hotel room.

I had bought us fun, matching Universal shirts to wear.  Unfortunately, the weather was in the 30's (come on, Florida!) when we left our hotel for the day and only got into the low 50's throughout the day, so our fun shirts were hidden under sweatshirts and jackets for most of the day.

After packing up and loading our luggage in our car, we walked over to Islands of Adventure to start our day with Early Entry to the Hogsmead area of the Harry Potter land.

It felt like we walked right into a Harry Potter book.  We had so much fun just walking around and looking at all the amazing details throughout the land.

All the shops, restaurants, and details were right out of the books and we loved pointing out little things to each other and finding fun things to look at...like quills writing by themselves in store windows or broomsticks floating in mid-air up by the ceiling of the store or the Monster Book of Monsters that growled and snapped and moved around it's cage.

Staley used her special money from Grammie and Grandpa to purchase an interactive wand.  All 3 kids enjoyed finding spots throughout Hogsmead and Diagon Alley where they could do spells that did things like make lights turn on, balls float, water turn on, flowers grow, or invisible ink appear.

We also rode the Harry Potter rides at Islands of Adventure.  Since the rides were all simulators or roller coasters, Zach wasn't able to ride any...although he did get to walk through the lines and enjoy the immersive experience of going into Hogwarts castle for the Forbidden Journey ride and seeing Hagrid's hut in the line for Flight of the Hippogriff.

The rest of us rode Flight of the Hippogriff, a little roller coaster that Briggs deemed his favorite ride at Universal and chose to ride again at the end of the night.  We also all rode Forbidden Journey, which was a much more intense ride with simulators and animatronic figures of some of the scarier points in Harry Potter, like dementors, giant spiders, fire breathing dragons, the whomping willow... Briggs cried his way through the ride and Adelie just closed her eyes the whole time.  I couldn't really enjoy it because I was feeling guilty for bringing my two littles on the scary ride.  Not my best mom moment.

After the trauma of Forbidden Journey, we stopped to recover with a mid-morning Butterbeer treat.

After we thoroughly explored Hogsmead, we wandered around the rest of the park.  We checked out Seuss Landing, where we rode the trolley, the Cat and the Hat ride, and the One Fish, Two Fish spinner ride (twice.)

Adelie loved the spinner and chose to do it again at the end of the night as her last fun thing.

We got lunch at the Circus McGurkus Cafe Stoopendous and ate our cheeseburgers, chicken sandwiches, and pizza outside in the sun while watching a Dr. Seuss show.  We then played at a little play area in Seuss Landing and walked around exploring other areas of the park, like the Jurassic Park area and the Marvel Universe area, where the girls rode Storm Force Acceleration.

Because of the cold weather, most of the bigger roller coasters were closed earlier in the day.  Staley had really wanted to ride Hagrids Motorbike roller coaster, which is the more intense of the Harry Potter roller coasters at Universal.  When it reopened for the day in the early afternoon, we got in line with a posted wait of 60 minutes.  We ended up waiting 2 hours.  Much of the line was in these small indoor cave-like corridors with no indication of how close you were getting to the end.  I began to feel claustrophobic and almost bailed at a few points, but we FINALLY made it and the coaster was fun and definitely a highlight for Staley.  While we were waiting and riding, Zach took the littles and explored some more, did all the rides in Seuss Landing again, and spent a little time playing in the Jurassic Park play area.

We then decided it was time to take the Hogwart's Express to Universal Studios to see the other Harry Potter land, Diagon Alley.

Obviously, riding the Hogwart's Express was top on Briggs' list of things to do.

Diagon Alley was another amazing elaborately detailed Harry Potter land.  Unfortunately, there was a large dragon on top of Gringott's bank that made a loud sound and breathed fire every 15 minutes.  Briggs was very scared of the dragon and just wanted to leave.  So Zach and the girls took their time exploring Diagon Alley and doing spells with Staley's wand while Briggs and I explored other areas of the park.

Briggs and I had fun meeting Kuwalski and riding a Simpson's alien spinner ride, the ET ride, and the Woody Woodpecker roller coaster.  (We discovered on this trip that Briggs really enjoys roller coasters.)

When Zach and the girls were done exploring, Staley and I stayed in Diagon Alley to ride the Gringott's ride while Zach and the littles did Men in Black Alien Attack and the Simpson's spinner again.

We then rode the Hogwarts Express again back to Islands of Adventure, did our final rides of the night (Hippogriff for me, Staley, and Briggs and One fish, two fish for Adelie and Zach), watched the projection light show on Hogwart's castle, and then left the park at closing time to check in to our townhouse, eat a late dinner of cereal, and get to bed after our long, fun day.

Although we enjoyed our Universal day, did some fun rides, and LOVED exploring the Harry Potter lands, we did realize that Universal is more geared towards those looking for thrill rides and excitement.  The Harry Potter rides were more intense than we were expecting, there were several other big roller coasters that Staley wasn't quite sure she wanted to try, and most of the other rides were simulators for things that my kids weren't interested in.  Apart from Seuss Land, most of the rides were ones Zach couldn't do with his motion sickness.  I'm glad we had our day at Universal and we definitely enjoyed it, but we were all ready to get to some more family friendly fun at Disney.