FL 2020- Universal Studios

 These pictures showed up in reverse order, but I don't have the patience to fix them.  I'll write from the bottom up....

At the end of the day, we rode everything we had wanted to ride, but Minions was closed for renovations and I think I was too sick to do Fast and the Furious while we were there and we never got back to it.  Jurassic Park had water and it wasn't a warm day so we didn't do that.  The weather was pretty nice if you ask me.  Yes, we wore jackets most of the day but it's better than being really hot and sweaty while waiting in line.  It was a bit rainy when we first got there and I was pretty chilly but that cleared up fast and we were good.  As we were walking the long walk back to our car, Kaden's feet finally gave out.  He was such a trooper all day.  But he had started to limp and saying his foot hurts when he walks.  So we took turns giving him piggy back rides.  Now he knows he can walk really far and do hard things!

This was just a statue of the raptor, we didn't wait in line to see the animatronic one.

Ryan took the two older kids to go on Hulk while we were finishing up eating.  BUT they couldn't go because he had his phone in his pocket and they are super strict about nothing in your pockets.  They have metal detectors and everything.  And nowhere to store anything by the ride.  So later when the park was about to close, Kylee and I decided to try to make it to Hulk and I handed Ryan my phone and we ran through the streets of the park to get to the line before they closed it.  We made it, and I guess everyone else got there walking and Ryan decided he would come too but as soon as he handed off all his keys and phones to my mom, they closed the line.  Bummer.  It was a cool roller coaster.  But not that much different or better than the ones at Lagoon.

Our feet got pretty tired with all the standing and walking so it was nice to sit for the animal show as well.  We had some snacks and enjoyed the show before walking some more.

E.T. was a nice little ride free from virtual movement and nice and slow.  It was super cute.  They take all our names and at the end they welcome us home by name.  It's pretty cool.

Kaden's favorite ride, and the one that finally did me in (I was getting SO motion sick on all the rides, sadly).  Jimmy Fallon's race through New York.  Kaden loved it because he likes race cars, but also because it didn't move technically.  We sat in theater seats with a screen in front of us.  But the seats moved around a little bit.  It was really cool and I wish I wasn't feeling sick because I had to close my eyes and tell my brain that we weren't going anywhere and to stop making me sick.  After this ride, I needed to lay down (we conveniently found a few patches of grass) and eat some crackers.  Then I felt much better.  Ryan and Kylee went on a big roller coaster while we waited. I  totally would have gone on the coaster, if my stomach wasn't a mess.  Dylan was too chicken and the other kids were not tall enough (and were too chicken as well).

I can't remember what they called this band, but they were hilarious.

The wall you walk through!  It only looks like a wall from back here, not when you are walking through it.  But still cool all the details they put in.

This is back at the train station

The pictures on the papers moved.

Escape from Gringotts was a fun ride, and these animatronics along the way were so lifelike we had some of our kids convinced they were real people dressed up.

Olivanders wand store

The Night Bus

The Hogwarts Express takes you to the other park, but it is a ride as well.  The details leading up to the train including the signs just like in London (or so my mom says, who just went to London) the wall at Platform 9 & 3/4 that you walk through, Hedwig in his cage.  And then sitting on the train you see out the window and you hear characters walking past your dooe and see their shadows.

Hagrid's new ride was really fun!  Grandma and Kaden went to Suessville since he was too small to ride it.  This was the longest line, but it was still fun.

Honeydukes is fun even though we don't let them buy any of it.

The details and storyline in every room of all the rides was so cool!

All of us in our Harry Potter shirts (that we bought because we are nerds but mostly to wear here) and the boys were in super hero shirts (even though flash is DC, and Kaden had his Captain America shirt on under his jacket)

Harry Potter is split between the two parks (brilliant way to make money on their part, you have to pay for both parks in order to ride the Hogwarts Express or see everything).  But it was AMAZING!  The details are just so fun.  The rides were super fun too.  We loved it.

I thought Kaden would really like the Superhero stuff because he's been a bit obsessed lately.  But he's quite a scardey-cat and even though the ride was mostly virtual, he didn't love it. The rest of us thought it was pretty cool though!

Universal Studios!!  I have been quietly planning this trip since we visited Universal Studios in California a few years earlier.  I was told that Harry Potter in Orlando was much bigger and better.  Last time we went Dylan had been big into Harry Potter.  This time Sadie was.  We were all very excited because we had so much fun last time.  I will say, it was definitely bigger and better, but the one thing I liked about Hollywood better was the characters.  The characters were very interactive and hilarious (namely Transformers and Jurassic Park) and they were out in the open so you could just hang out and watch them interact with everyone that came to take pictures.  In Orlando, the Transformer guy did nothing but pose for a pic.  And there was a line for the raptor from Jurassic Park that was 30 minutes or so.  We started waiting in line but then Ryan met up with us and we were headed to something else so we didn't bother.  But we couldn't even see the raptor from the line where we were.  And we got in a line to meet Captain America but they turned us away because he had to go do his motorcycle ride with his other Avengers buddies, which was cool but it only happened a few times on the hour and it was quick so if you missed it, you had to wait there for another hour.  Of course we had a lot to see and do so we didn't want to hang out for an hour.  So we did see them while we were eating but we didn't get any pictures.