Happy Friday, friends!! I'm so ready for a wonderful weekend with a little R&R, family time and yep, my friend laundry. For our final installment of our vacation trip, after our Royal Caribbean cruise, we headed to Universal Studios.
Back in March, as a birthday present for C, my sister in law brought up us all going to Universal Studios as we were there in Florida already. C absolutely adores Harry Potter so we figured it would be an awesome trip for her and the 7, 5 and 3 year old would just have to keep up. Little did we know our 7 y.o. was the adrenaline junkie in the bunch!!
All nine of us arrived from Fort Lauderdale in a fifteen seater! We stayed at the Portofino Hotel in Universal and would go back in heartbeat. My sister in law's superstar aunt organised it all for us and accompanied us as well. This beautiful hotel comes with the Fast Pass included and it would be hard to go back any other way.
We fell in love with the beauty and size of the rooms after a teeny tiny cruise ship
We went over to City Walk for dinner and a little measurement!! Barely made the cut with her sneakers.
Day 1, we hit the ground hard with Shrek!
So many absolutely fun rides. The Transformers ride was one of my very faves. But I screamed for many rides. So did C. A did not... she enjoyed every thrilling moment.
I did not expect the Jimmy Fallon ride to be so much fun. The virtual reality and simulations made almost everyone of these rides more thrilling!
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Springfield time!
Then it was HP World time!! Friends, as a not very avid fan, it was amazing!!! And for the fans.... this was her look many, many times!!!
My brother bought a wand for her to do the spells in HP world.
Diagon Alley fun!
Friends of ours recommended the Diagon Alley ice cream shop and boy did it deliver. We had them both days we were there. Here we have my chocolate chili and C's raspberry chocolate with chopped nuts-- just like Harry did. A ordered strawberries and cream which we all loved so I ordered that one the day after. Sidenote, they were huge... split with a friend if you can... or a daughter. We ended up throwing away half of almost all the first day.
A was tired and coming down with a cold so we borrowed the stroller to take her back to the room as she was wiped and hadn't been feeling well all of August .
Waiting for the ferry
C stayed with my brother who is awful with his phone and I forgot to bring my phone back with me so nothing is pictured. My aunt and my cousins who live in Florida also came to visit us and go to dinner at Hard Rock Cafe!!
Day Two and ready to do.
This time we started at Islands of Adventure.
It was blistering hot!
Spiderman was another one of our faves.
We got SOAKED in a water ride so here we are hungry and a little worse for wear.
C was so wet she went back to change.
Hogsmeade!!!
Disney is all about the characters... Universal- all about those rides!!!
After all the thrilling rides, this adrenaline junkie was not impressed with the carousel!
More time in HP world including my favourite ride, The Forbidden Journey. Okay, I had to sit after the ride for a bit but boy was it worth it.
This interaction with Stan from the night bus was so much fun!!
My aunt met us the next day and we headed for some lunch, a walk on Citywalk and some voodoo doughnuts before heading to the airport.
And that is a wrap on our awesome Universal adventure! What a fun way to end our summer!!
Have a wonderful weekend, friends!!!
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