Islands of Adventure

On Christmas Eve, we headed to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. Kelsey, Connor, Jason and I were so excited when we learned that we would receive tickets to Universal Studios because that meant we would get to go to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter! We are huge Harry Potter Fans, so this was an exciting day for us. When we made it into the park, Harry Potter had already reached capacity! We decided to go to Dr. Seuss Landing first and try Harry Potter later. Parker has really enjoyed watching "The Cat in the Hat"on PBS kids lately and so we thought he would enjoy this part of the park which is completely dedicated to Dr. Suess stories. It was so much fun!

There are several rides based on different Dr. Seuss books and everything has that whimsical, zany feel like the Dr. Seuss stories. There are even "whos" walking around. We all enjoyed riding The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, Caro-Seuss-el, The Cat In The Hat, and If I Ran The Zoo. Our special pass from GKTW again allowed us to walk right on most of the rides!

After we had had our fill of Dr. Seuss Landing, we decided to try The Wizarding World of Harry Potter again. We were hoping our special pass would actually get us in even though it had reached capacity. And amazingly, they let us right in! IT WAS AWESOME!!! It literally feels like you are walking into one of the Harry Potter movies. The first thing you see is Hogsmeade and The Hogwarts Express.

And then you see this...

The Hogwarts Castle.

I had to just stand there for a minute and look at it all, because is was SO cool! We were so excited to be there even though it was packed (notice all the heads in the picture). We were all able to ride Flight of the Hippogriff. But only Jason, Kelsey and I were able to ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. This ride actually takes you inside the castle. It was amazing! After that, Connor had to buy a wand--he had been anxiously waiting and planning for this, weeks before our trip! He used almost all of his spending money to buy a wand. Can you guess who's wand he picked out? Here he is trying it for the first time...

Kelsey had also been saving her money for Harry Potter World. After walking through Honeydukes, Zonko's, and Dervish and Banges, she picked out a real chocolate frog and a Gryffindor hat.

By the time we were finished with all that, Parker was getting irritated, hungry and restless (he's not much of a Harry Potter fan...yet), so we left Harry Potter and went back to Dr. Suess Landing to eat at Circus McGurkus Cafe Stoo-pendous and then we headed over to Marvel Super Hero Island. Unfortunately, Connor and Parker were not tall enough to ride almost all of the rides there and the Spiderman ride was broken! So, we just decided to walk around and see some of the shops. Well, it just so happens that Spiderman was visiting the first shop we went to! We were able to talk to him for a minute and take a picture with him. Parker was thrilled to find out from Spiderman himself that they shared the same name (Peter Parker forthose of you who don't know Spiderman's true identity...).

We couldn't leave the shop until Parker had his very own Spiderman shirt. He had to put it right on and he practiced his "spidey" fingers the rest of the day. You can probably guess that Spiderman is the new favorite Superhero at our house.

Shortly after that, we decided to head back to the Village. What a great day we had at Universal Studios! Check back in for our Christmas Day adventure at Disney's Hollywood Studios!