I spent all day Saturday packing for our very expensive Universal vacation. We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel. Our vacation was off to a rocky start when we made the driver go back for Owen’s backpack. Then our flight was delayed. I had put trackers in the luggage for the first time and we noticed the bags weren’t together, but didn’t think much of it until we got to Orlando and saw the one bag was still in Newark. I checked our bag status and sure enough, that bag was being put on a later flight. So we filled out a form to get it delivered to the hotel.
It was late by the time we got to the hotel. We missed our dinner reservation that the travel agent had failed to tell me about. We walked over to city walk and ate at Bubba Gump’s. Then it was back to the hotel, baths, and straight to bed.
Nov 3
Monday was our first Epic day. It’s the new park that just opened a few months ago. I was nervous reading all the reviews about rides going down, but they really had their stuff together that day. We had express, and didn’t wait more than 20 minutes or so for anything. The kids enjoyed playing with their power-up bands in the Nintendo area. Glenn went on Mine Cart Madness with us and was terrified.
We had lunch at Atlantic which was a beautiful restaurant. The food was very good too. Then we headed to the How to Train Your Dragon area so Glenn could run around on the playground. He was angry Owen didn’t want to play with him and Glenn refused to go on the Hiccup coaster, so just Owen and I went on. Glenn did to The Curse of the Werewolf later though. The Untrainable Dragon show was pretty cool. We didn’t meet Toothless though because the line was crazy.
They bought wands in the Harry Potter area and spent a while casting spells. The Battle of the Ministry ride was really cool. Glenn was in a better mood after that. We were even able to ride Monsters Unchained without him. So we did almost everything in the park. Pretty impressive theming.
Nov 4
I figured the kids could cast spells since Islands of Adventure was open early, we went there. Decided to have Glenn do spells while Owen and Bryan went on Hagrids, but even with Express Pass, it took them an hour and Glenn’s wand was not working. I had no way to get in touch with a Bryan since I had his phone, so we couldn’t go and get it fixed or anything, so we just waited … and waited. Glenn was in a surprisingly good mood considering. We went on the rollercoaster there and then he really wanted to go to the Jurassic Park playground, so we did.
I think that playground is quite possibly the coolest playground ever. It’s huge! It has ropes and slides and tunnels and caves. It has a splash area and a like raptor cage area with fog where the kids can shoot each other with water. It was really hard to pull him away for lunch at Mythos, so we promised we’d come back… and we did. We spent a lot of time there. Owen liked it too, though not as much as Glenn. Lucky for us, he got soaking wet, so we convinced him to go on the Jurassic Park River Adventure… and then we were all wet, so we used one of the driers to dry off. Glenn got a new shirt too.
We did Kong after that. Hey, did you know Islands of Adventure has another play area? Much smaller, but we had to drag him away from that too to do Spider Man. Then we did the Dr Sues area and left and had dinner at Hard Rock.
Nov 5
Day was already off to a great start after looking at the election results. We started out at Islands again because they have early entry. Bryan got Glenn’s wand fixed while Owen and I went on Hagrid’s. It was a fun coaster. Barely had to wait this time. Then of course Glenn had to do the playground again. We saw Pteranodon Flyers had just opened, so we did that first. Scarier than it looks. Then we took the Hogwarts Express to Universal Studios.
We did Gringotts and Transformers and then had an early lunch. We did the Minion attractions and then headed over to the Dreamworks area where, of course, there are more playgrounds. We did the Bourne Stuntacular on the way, Terminator was better. While Glenn played on the playground, Owen and I did the Mummy, though we had some trouble getting there because of the parade. Cool parade though, they had a Back to the Future float.
We eventually managed to pull Glenn away from the playgrounds for the Trollercoaster and ET. Then we left for our dinner reservation at Antojitos. It was early still, so the kids went swimming after because they’re kids and don’t feel cold. They both really enjoyed waterslide.
Nov 6
Our second day at Epic was also pretty great. We didn’t get to do the power up bands much the other day, so we started with that. The kids got the three keys they needed for Bowser’s challenge which turns out is really pretty cool and we all got to play. We did a lot of the same as the other day. We had lunch at Nine Dragons where we eventually found something for Owen to eat. Glenn went on Hiccup’s Wing Gliders this time and loved it. Towards the end of the day, Bryan and Owen went on Monsters and Glenn wanted to check out the water play area. I have him instructions to not get too wet. An hour later, both he and Owen were drenched and shirtless. But they had fun. We bought them some new shirts.
Nov 7
We started out the day at Volcano Bay. Glenn was scared to do the aqua coaster, but did it anyway, and then regretted it, but I’m glad he did it because I thought it was fun. We spent a lot of time in the lazy river and the fearless river. Owen went around the fearless river 14 times. Glenn wanted to leave early afternoon, so I took him to the Jurassic Park playground again. We had dinner at the Toothsome Chocolate Emporium and it was pretty good. Had a giant sundae for dessert. Glenn didn’t have enough time swimming, so he did the pool and went down the side a billion times when we got back.
Nov 8
We finished up the attractions we didn’t do at studios, minus Fast and the Furious, because it’s notoriously bad. Glenn got soaked on the water playground again. We wanted to do the Hogwarts Express the opposite direction, and we did, but waited quite a while for it. Had some yummy sushi for dinner at Cow Fish. Let the kids enjoy the pool after dinner for a while. They wanted me to go down the water slide a couple of times, so I did. Then was freezing, do spent some time in the hot tub.
Nov 9
Well, we started out at 6am. Our flight was delayed five hours due to having a bunch of toddlers in office. Now we’ve been sitting on the runway for an hour due to weather. Glenn’s losing it. Been trying to make the best of it, but it’s getting harder and harder. After sitting on the ground in the plane for about two hours, it finally took off. And the first plane had screens and Wi-Fi. This one has nothing. Luckily I have a couple movies downloaded on the old iPad, but the newer downloads I queued expired or never finished. Eventually the batteries will die. I would have charged in the airport if I knew and was able to find a free outlet. This is just all around bad. The rest of the trip was great though. Couldn’t have asked for a better week.
