The last week of June, Trinity and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary by taking a five day trip to Orlando, Florida. Steven and Megan were saints to keep Gracie so that we could enjoy our first solo vacation since she was born! And we had a fantastic trip!
The first day, we spent all day at Universal Studio's Islands of Adventure. We were lucky enough to be there the one week that they opened an hour early, so we woke up early to be one of the first ones in line at 7:30am. A coworker had warned me that Harry Potter World gets crazy in the afternoons, so we headed straight to the back of the park and literally walked right on to the flying broomstick ride. Within the first few hours, we'd walked through the entire HP world and ridden all the rides. And, of course, shared a frozen butterbeer. Delicious! We ended up going back for several more throughout the day!The rest of the day we spent enjoying the rest of the theme park, and because we diligently got to Islands of Adventure before it opened, we finished the park early and had time to hang out at Universal CityWalk and go see Brave.
Saturday we arrived at Disney's Hollywood Studios an hour and a half before the park opened. That's right... that is how we do it! We were rewarded with being first in line AND getting into the park 30 minutes early.We practically ran to the Toy Story 3 ride and again walked right onto the ride. It was a fun, arcade-style ride!
We headed towards the Muppet show next, but we made a stop at the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground on the way. Because it is a kids play area, adults are not allowed in. But because we were the only ones in that half of the park, the sweet lady who works at the playground gave us a personal tour! It was amazing and fun to walk through the area. And we even pointed out the larger-than-life pie to her, which she had never seen! In her defense, the entire playground is brown to look like you're in the dirt, but we were still shocked she had never noticed it!
Walking around the Muppets area really reminded me of how well Disney does everything. Everywhere we looked, there were so many details and fun quirky decorations. We loved it!
The last day we headed to Universal Studios and were pleasantly surprised by the changes they have made to the park since we each visited it. Spending three full days at the parks really reminded me how much fun theme parks are, and I cannot wait to take Grace to Disney next year for her birthday!
