Rob was waiting for us in the main terminal in Orlando and it was POURING rain when we landed. We weren't suprised, as every time we checked the 10-day forecast it had called for rain every single day of our trip. Our bags showed up quickly and we made our way to the taxi line. We were surprised when we arrived at our hotel and the driver insisted on cash. Amazingly, between the three of us we had the exact amount needed to pay him and even managed a small tip. He'd have been tipped better if he would have let us use a credit card, but it was more important for him to have cash in hand.
We found our hotel, The Holiday Inn Resort, online using Travelocity's Super Secret Hotel program (which we give two thumbs up!) so we weren't totally sure what to expect (partly because we got REALLY good rates - almost too good to be true). We've been really pleased with this hotel. It's clean, the beds are comfortable, the rooms are big enough that the three of us don't feel crowded, the shuttle to the parks was always on time, the location is really close to Downtown Disney and very close to the apartment complex Alaina will be moving into.
We slept in a bit Thursday morning because we were planning to catch the second shuttle to Universal Studios. In the minimal research I had done before we left for Florida I had read that sometimes riders could stand in line for up to two hours for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. We had planned on spending our first day in the Wonderful Wizarding World of Harry Potter since we didn't know how big it really was or how much there was to do so we headed straight to the back of the park.
Walking into the parks is always so much fun. It's so easy to get caught up in all the different areas with their fun themes and decor.
It was tempting to veer off and expore other areas of the park first....
But we did our best to stay focused and headed to the back of the park to find Hogsmeade.
It was as amazing to see as we'd hoped it would be. We slowly walked through the town taking in the incredible detail as we wound our way to the back of the park towards Hogwarts.
We walked back down to Hogsmeade and stood in line to go into Olivander's Wand Shoppe. As we went inside, Olivander asked Alaina if she had come to his shop to choose a wand. She said yes and he proceeded with his spiel about how wands choose their owner and not the other way around. He handed her a wand with unicorn tail in the core and when she tried to use it, the shelves on the wall collapsed. The second wand wasn't much better in her hands, but when he pulled out the third wand, "MAGIC"! We tried to get a video of this but it was so dark that we couldn't get a decent picture. We do have the recording if you want to listen to her adventure in Olivander's.
We then went over to The Three Broomsticks for dinner. Alaina said it tasted just like elves made it back in the kitchen. It was so much fun going through this part of the park with her as she really embraces the magic of the adventure (this is one of the reasons we are confident she will do well as she begins her time working in DisneyWorld).
We ordered Frozen Butterbeer with our dinner. It was different from anything we'd ever tasted. It was like butterscotch and cream soda in a frozen slushy form. HINT: Don't stand in line outside in the hot sun to get your butterbeer; go inside the Three Broomsticks. It may take about as long, but you'll be inside an air-conditioned building.
After dinner we walked back up to The Forbidden Journey and were delighted to find that the wait was only half an hour long so we rode it again. We'd pretty much seen everything we'd wanted to in that area of the park by then so we decided to slowly head back towards the front of the park and spend a little time shopping in City Walk.
On our way there we saw that the Sinbad show was only a few minutes away from starting so we went in. We bravely sat in the splash zone and boy did we get wet. At one point I thought about putting up our umbrella, but we were already soaked through by then so I decided to just embrace the experience and the drenchings that followed.
While we were waiting for the ropes to drop so we could go in and take our seats a little bug slowly climbed onto Rob's shoe and proceeded to walk up the shoe towards his leg. Rob shook him off and we laughed as the bug calmly turned around, walked straight towards Rob, climbed up on his shoe and again headed straight for his leg. Rob shook him off again, a little harder this time and the bug decided to find another person to climb up.
Friday morning we were up bright and early so we could catch the first shuttle over to Universal. Rob started the morning with a trip on The Hulk. This coaster has EIGHT upside down loops so there was no way I was going to ride it and Alaina politely declined also. Alaina and Rob did Dr Dread Fall next and as I was sitting below watching the ride I saw a hat slowly floating down to the ground. I thought to myself, "Rob just lost his hat". Sure enough. It popped off just as the ride hit the top and started back down. A lady standing just off to the side from me saw the hat floating down and burst out laughing like it was the funniest thing she'd ever seen.
We had such a fun day. We went on every single water ride in the park and Rob even conquered the Dueling Dragons coaster. He has no idea how many times it went upside down and Alaina and I were in the wand shop and the candy shop while he was on the ride so we couldn't watch (besides, most of the ride is hidden from view). It was sunny and warm and a perfect day for getting soaked. We did have to wait in line for most of the rides because there were quite a few schools in the park for their end of year celebrations, but that didn't actually seem to slow us down as much as we thought it would when we saw the crush of people at the front gates at the beginning of the day.
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