Disney Vacation 2013 - Day 1 Universal

We just can't stay away from Disney for too long!  At Christmas we surprised the kids with a short trip over their Winter Break.  The BIG part of the surprise was that we were also going to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter for our big Harry Potter fans!  I finally got a big "Disney" moment when the kids figured out we were going they screamed with excitement & jumped up and down. Emma even cried a little being so excited about Harry Potter.  So cute - melted my heart!   And I didn't have it on video.

Anyways the plan was to leave on Friday night and stay at a non -Disney resort and then check into Disney on Saturday.  Another big part of the surprise is that we were flying!  We didn't tell the kids until we got to the airport!  Hehehe..pretty sneaky!  They were so, so excited to fly!!  

We got into Orlando about 4:30 on Friday.  We were renting a car for that night so we could go to Universal.  We had an easy time renting the van and found the hotel fairly quickly.  We dropped our stuff and headed out for dinner at Don Pablo's.  We knew we had a big day the next day!

Saturday morning we woke up and got ready to get to the park.  Our goal was to be at Universal Islands of Adventure right when the park opened at 9am.  We were actually successful and made it through the gates about 5 min early!  We headed straight to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  We knew the quickest way there and didn't make any detours.  We arrived at the Forbidden Journey at approximately 9:05 to find a 90 minute wait.  Sigh.  But..that's why we were there so we sucked it up and got in the queue.   The kids did pretty good considering the long wait and it actually "only" took an hour.  Lily LOVED the ride, Emma was scared to death.  But I think she loved being in Hogwarts.  After the ride we checked out the wands and Jacob & Lily just had to have one.  Then the younger three rode the Flight of the Hippogriff while Emma and I checked out Hogsmeade.  Then it was Butterbeer for everyone!!  We did a little more exploring in Harry Potter and then headed over to Seuss Landing.  

Seuss Landing is a super cute Dr. Seuss themed area.  The rides are perfect for little kids.  Unfortunately this is the only area at Universal geared toward little ones but it was fun.  We rode a couple rides, got a snack and decided to head to Super Hero Island. Also unfortunate?  We hit Universal on a Busy day.  Really busy.  We went to the Spiderman Line where the posted wait time was 80 min.  Too long but we could all ride it so we sucked it up.  It ended up being the slowest line EVER and we waited for about 2 hours by the time it was said and done.  Jacob literally took a nap in the middle of the wait.  It was hot and we were all a little irritated by the end!  Needless to say we had to leave shortly after that since we had to return the rental van and catch the Disney bus to our resort.  

We made it back to the airport, returned our car and hopped right on the bus for the Magical Express.  It was great how fast it all was.  This trip we were staying at Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary Resort.  We had a 2 bedroom with a Theme Park View.  Oh. My. Goodness.  It was magnificent.  Literally from every window in our room we could see the castle and Space Mountain!  It was unbelievable.

We got settled but then had dinner reservations at The Beach Club at the Cape May Seafood Buffet.  Kids were dying to ride the monorail and we thought that would be a quick way to the Magic Kingdom.  After just missing one we decided just to walk to the Magic Kingdom buses.  Thankfully we didn't wait too long and rode the bus over to Beach Club.  What a beautiful resort!  We enjoyed our seafood dinner (crab legs - yes please!) though we've got to teach these kids how to crack their own crab legs!  We headed back to our resort and got off the bus just as Wishes - the Magic Kingdom fireworks show - was starting.  We were treated to an amazing view of the fireworks as we walked back to the resort.

What a wonderful start to our family vacation!  We all couldn't wait for our next day at Hollywood Studios!