Universal Studios and Disney World

We loved our Western Caribbean Cruise over Christmas! We embarked and disembarked in Tampa, Florida and visited four new countries. We enjoyed getting just a tiny taste of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras on the cruise. But, we were also excited to be in Florida for the first time! We weren't sure when we were ever going to make it back to Florida (literally the farthest state away from Washington), so we knew we had to hit the important sites before we left: Universal Studios and Disney World!!

My parents had taken Sam, Leah, and me to Disneyland when we were younger in 2001, but poor Mike had never experienced Disney until this trip! Dustan went to Disneyland with his entire family in 2004. Here are a few fun pictures of Dustan, me, and our families from our old school Disneyland days! It was a lot of fun to compare some of these pictures!

Apparently the sun is really bright at the Disney entrance ;)

The best Disney castle picture you will ever see.

Spongebob shirts FTW

On our trip to Orlando, we decided that we were going to need four full days for the parks: one full day at Universal Studios and three days at Disney World. Our partial days traveling from Tampa or catching our flight would be spent at Disney Springs or relaxing at our hotel. Overall, we had roughly six days! We had a good friend spend a long time as an intern at Disney World, so she gave us the inside scoop on where to eat, when to visit, and which rides to hit first.

We got off our cruise ship around 10:00 am on Monday, December 26. From there, we caught an Uber (we are now all huge fans) from the Tampa cruise terminal to our hotel in Orlando, the Wyndham Grand. Then the adventure began!

Day 1: Disney Springs

After dropping our bags off at our hotel and taking a small break, we took a quick Uber over to Disney Springs (Disney World's version of Downtown Disney, but way bigger) because we had a lunch reservation! We had a little time to walk around the shops before going to our reservation at the T-Rex Cafe.

The T-Rex Cafe (the dinosaur version of the Rainforest Cafe, if you couldn't guess) was awesome. Though the food was a little overpriced, it was delicious. We would definitely recommend the seared mozzarella appetizer and the pulled pork sandwich. But more importantly, the atmosphere was very unique for a restaurants. We ate our food to the constant growl of dinosaurs and had to live through a "meteor shower" every 10 minutes.

After lunch, we walked around Disney Springs a little more, visiting the impressive lego statues and the largest Disney paraphernalia store in the world. Then, we headed back to the hotel!

Can you believe that this is the ceiling in a store? Ridiculous

We wandered around the resort for a while and ended up spending some time in a lazy river, a hot tub full of Jamaicans, and watching How to Train Your Dragon poolside. Dustan and I headed back upstairs to the room first, unknowingly leaving the rest of the family behind to get completely lost in the resort. Whoops, haha. We played some games, looked through cruise pictures, and caught up on social media (we had no internet on the cruise) before heading to bed--we were hitting Universal Studios hard the next day!

Day 2: Universal Studios and the Wonderful World of Harry Potter

Apparently Universal Studios is made up of two parks (kind of like Disneyland has Disneyland and California Adventure). You have Universal Studios and Island of Adventure, and within in each of those, the most exciting area of all... THE WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER. I was so excited. We had the whole day planned in advance: where to go first and what rides we had to hit! We arrived at the park via Uber soon after it opened and ate a quick McDonalds breakfast. Of course, we were wearing our bright green, matching Seahawks shirts.

We ran over to the Universal Studios side first and made a beeline to the farthest corner of the park from the entrance. Yes, we were going to Diagon Alley! We walked through the brick wall (seen in the first Harry Potter book/movie behind The Leaky Cauldron) and entered Diagon Alley. It was so magical! It looked completely how I would have imagined it from the books, and just like the scenes in the movie. We were in a whole different world.

Pure happiness on my face because I'm in the world of Harry Potter

We took a quick peek around the area before quickly heading to our first ride of the day, Escape from Gringotts, obviously in the Gringotts Bank. Unfortunately, the line was already a couple hours long. We quickly found ways to entertain ourselves and played lots of card-less and board-less games throughout the week. But it was a great ride. This was the first time that everyone in our family had been on a ride that was simultaneously a roller coaster and a 3D simulation ride. It was quite neat.

After that ride, we walked around Diagon Alley a little more and got our first Butterbeers. Yes, they are worth the ridiculous price. So yummy. Definitely get the Frozen Butterbeer. We walked through some of the famous shops, such as Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and Flourish and Botts.

With Butterbeers in hand, we caught to the Hogwarts Express over to Hogsmeade! We got to walk throuh the brick wall to Platform 9 3/4, then it was a chill little train ride that was much better than walking all the way over to Hogsmeade in the Island of Adventure park. There, we first rode the Dragon Challenge, which was just a fun, loopy roller coaster.

Next, we walked through snowy Hogsmeade (tempted by the Butterbeer cart) before reaching Hogwarts, which was AMAZING. Hogwarts looked so cool. Again, the line for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey (the ride inside the castle) was pretty stinkin' long. But the ride was so worth it. Definitely my favorite of the trip! The ride was another mixture between a roller coaster and a 3D simulation. The story behind the ride was that you are on a broomstick following Harry, Ron, and Hermione on an adventure around the castle. It included 3D scenes with Voldemort, magic explosions, and soaring over the Black Lake, as well as real life roller coaster dodging of the Womping Willow and flying through the castle. We all loved it. Because the ride was such an all encompassing experience, Dustan was quite dizzy and had to stay seated for a minute or two after the ride to catch his bearings, haha.

From there, we finally left Harry Potter World--but not for good! We headed out to Jurassic World and grabbed some pizza for lunch and took a short shade break away from the roasting sun. Then, we continued waiting in lines and riding rides! We circled through the rest of Island of Adventure, going to King Kong (another 3D simulation ride) and the Incredible Hulk (a basic but awesome roller coaster). Unfortunately, I chose not to take any picture in Universal Studios other than in Harry Potter World, haha.

By this time, it was pretty dark outside and only a couple hours until closing. We ran back up to Hogsmeade to the ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride in Hogwarts again. Dustan and Mike sat this ride out to take pictures of Hogwarts at night, which turned out awesome. Afterward, we grabbed some more Butterbeer and rode the Hogwarts Express back to Diagon Alley because Leah and Mike wanted a couple wands--of course, the only two that have yet to read all the books wanted the wands ;)

As we were boarding the Hogwarts express, it started raining. By the time we had left Olivanders with wands in hand, it was pouring. Just completely dumping rain. The park cleared out pretty quick. We tried to wait out the rain in Diagon Alley, but the park was closing and we needed to leave. We got soaked almost immediately after walking out. We bought one poncho for a single person to wear while carrying everyone's bags to keep the cameras and wands from getting wet (thanks Dustan!), but the rest of us got soaked!

A few of us made a stop at Walmart to buy breakfast foods for the rest of the week, then we headed back to our hotel and crashed. We had walked over 20,000 steps that day and we were ready for bed!

PS: The rest of my descriptions about our days at Disney World won't be quite as long--I just LOVED Harry Potter World!!

Day 3: Disney World's Animal Kingdom

And just like Disneyland again, Disney World isn't just made up of one park. Disney World has four parks! There is the Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios. According to our sage friend, we would need one whole/packed day for Magic Kingdom, about three quarters of a day for Animal Kingdom and the same for Epcot, and just a few hours for Hollywood Studios. So, we decided to give ourselves a slightly more chill day and just hit Animal Kingdom after our long day at Universal Studios.

We slept in that morning and took our hotel's shuttle to the Animal Kingdom around noon, and stayed close to closing. Today we wore our matching Sounders MLS 2016 Championship shirts, but we quickly realized that it was a lot harder to find our family without the bright green... We had a little bit of a hassle getting our tickets (workers kept sending us to the wrong stations) but then we were in! Unfortunately, we couldn't get any fast passes for the day without first having our tickets. But we reserved fast passes for our next Disney days while waiting in line at Animal Kingdom.

Animal Kingdom is laid out in different sections depending on types of animals and locations. At the center of the park is a giant/fake tree, so it isn't too hard to navigate. We first went to Dinoland to ride DINOSAUR, which was a cute little roller coaster/3D simulation ride (apparently those are a thing these days?). We walked back toward the Tree of Life to the opposite of the park for a couple more rides.

One of the games often played in line, "Heads Up"

Another ride we went on was the Kilimanjaro Safari. For this "ride" we hopped on a bus that took us on a tour of a zoo for about 20 minutes. We saw a lot of less common and even endangered animals, such as the white rhino, elephants, okapi, lions, warthogs, cheetahs, and more. We got a good look at all the animals except for the hippo, which was hiding.

We ate some Asian food for lunch at the Yak and Yeti Quickstop before getting in line for Expedition Everest. This was one of the better roller coasters at Disney World as a whole. It had some fun drops and even went backward for part of it. We rode to the top just as the sun was setting, a beautiful view. By the time we got off the ride, it was dark.

On our way out, of the Animal Kingdom we stopped by the Tree of Life to take a peek at the light show projected on to it. Once we finished that, we took a park shuttle over to Hollywood Studios with the plan to ride the Tower of Terror. Unfortunately, when we arrived the ride was shut down for an indefinite amount of time. We ended up just walking around the park a little before heading back to our hotel. Back at the hotel, we got some delicious ice cream before going to bed!

Day 4: Disney World's Magic Kingdom

After the slightly relaxing day (but still not really) at the Animal Kingdom the day before, we woke up early with the plan to spend the whole day at the Magic Kingdom! We again put on our matching Seahawks shirts (yes, we wore then a lot, no shame), then ate breakfast in our hotel room and took the hotel shuttle to the park just as it was opening.

We first zipped over to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride with NO LINE (a miracle) before using our fast passes at the Jungle Cruise, which was hilarious! We had a guide that just used puns for her entire tour. Afterward, we ran over to the Haunted Mansion, which I don't think was quite as good as the Disneyland version. We were able to hit all three of these rides in under two hours, it was awesome. Usually you can't even get through one ride line it that time. And that is why you get to the park right as it opens!

Our haunted faces

From there, we got in the long line at one of the new rides, the Seven Dwarves Mine Train. It was a fun ride, but a little anticlimactic after all the hype and ridiculously long line. A few of us did the teacups before grabbing burgers for lunch at Cosmic Rays in Tomorrowland.

In the afternoon, we watched the Festival of Fantasy Christmas Parade down main street from Frontierland, right by where it started. It was so fun to see all the characters dancing around! From there, we got wet on Splash Mountain and thoroughly loved it! We bided our time with Mickey's Philharmonic (a 4D movie) and the Monster Inc. Laugh Show (a comedy show also in a theater, but actually hilarious, not pre-scripted, and involved the audience).

Our last fast passes were in the evening. We walked through Magic Kingdom's main square, just past Cinderella's castle, in the middle of a dance party on our way to Tomorrowland. We rode Space Mountain, another favorite of everyone, which is why the fast pass is so necessary. We got through the line quick! We stopped for cream cheese stuffed pretzels before going to use our last fast pass at Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Again, we loved it!

Really enjoying our pretzels, haha

We grabbed a couple Dole Whips to share on our way to our last event at the Magic Kingdom, the Wishes Fireworks Show. It was spectacular. The fireworks went off just above Cinderella's Castle while a light show was projected on to the castle.

It was really fun to explore the Magic Kingdom, which is essentially a large Disneyland. There are many similar areas, treats, and rides. And all so magical!

Day 5: Disney World's Hollywood Studios and Epcot

Our last day at Disney World arrived! This was the only day in Orlando that was actually chilly. We were sweatshirts and we were still chilly most of the day! We were just glad it never rained.

Since we weren't able to get on the Tower of Terror a couple days beforehand, we first went to Hollywood Studios to try and catch it. And catch it we did! Again, Tower of Terror broke down while we were in line, but we persevered and only had to wait a couple hours to get on.

We thought about doing a couple of the roller coasters at Hollywood Studios, but the waits were over three hours... Not worth it. We did wait in the line to ride Star Tours (a motion simulation 3D ride) though. After, we walked around the park a little more before taking a ferry over to the last Disney park, Epcot! It was fun to walk around Hollywood Studios after Dustan and I had lived so close to Los Angeles for the summer. A lot of the attractions in this park are based off tourist sites in Hollywood, such as Hollywood Boulevard and the Chinese Theatre. Also, it was fun to take a ferry over to Epcot, rather than the usual bus or monorail.

Everyone had been telling me beforehand that Epcot was going to be my favorite park, which had me confused. I knew Epcot was supposed to represent many different countries around the world, which was neat. But I wasn't prepared for how in-depth it was! It was absolutely one of my favorite parts of Disney. Epcot park surrounds a giant lake. Around the lake there are areas dedicated to different countries, such as France, Italy, Morocco, Canada, Mexico, Germany, etc. In each area though, the architecture matched the country, there was authentic food and shops, and all the workers were from that country. It was actually spectacular! We walked through a few of the countries and grabbed some delicious snacks at France before going to our fast pass at Fast Track, one of the few rides at Epcot.

Morocco

Japan

France

At Test Track we got to design a car then take "our car" out on a track and see how it does. It was a pretty fun ride. Then we headed back to the countries! We made a full loop around the lake. By the time we made it all the way around though (exploring each country and often grabbing a snack there) it was pretty dark.

China--I love their love of pandas, yay!

Germany

France

We wanted to ride the little tour ride within the giant silver ball that Epcot is known for, but the line was pretty bad...along with every other ride at Epcot, haha. We decided that the hour long ride at Mission to Mars was worth it, so we road that. The orange simulation was quite fun, but not as intense as the warning pamphlets made it sound. Last, we ended up going on the Finding Nemo ride :) Then, it was time to end our Disney World Parks experience!

Day 6: Disney Springs

Saturday was our last day in Orlando. We packed up our bags early and left them with the hotel before again taking an Uber over to Disney Springs. We had a few hours to kill before getting to the airport, so we went to see Rogue One at the AMC theater at Disney Springs! It was surprisingly cheap, and very good! Even if you aren't a die hard Star Wars fan (I'm not, though I really enjoy them), it is a very good movie.

We ate fish and chips for lunch at the Cooke's of Dublin before catching an Uber back to our hotel, and another to the airport. We were all sad to be ending our trip, but we were excited to be back in our own beds (and with our own rooms, haha since we shared one giant room at the hotel) and relax! The long days on our feet really exhausted us.

Again, we can't thank my parents enough for the wonderful trip we had over Christmas break! Not only for the cruise, but for the fun-filled days in Orlando. Dustan and I honestly feel like we grew closer as a family, even during the times we got a little sick of each other ;) And I think I speak for us all when I say it was one of the best Nielson Family trips yet!!