Walt Disney World April 2015, Day 2 – Universal Parks

I’m feeling rather rubbish tonight but I’m trying really hard to stay on top of my blog (even if I’m not on top of everything else) and I managed to nap at my mum’s after dinner so I have no excuse really. So today I’m sharing what I got up to on my second day on holiday in Florida. Although this is all lumped together as our Walt Disney World holiday, on my second day we visited the “other” parks as I really wanted to do The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. So here is what we got up to;

Our second morning wasn’t as an early start, I think it was possibly 5:45 when I woke and LM was still asleep. I had a cab booked for us to Universal for 7:30 for the park opening at 8am. So at 6:30 we headed around the corner to an Ihop for breakfast. I had the 2x2x2 my go to in an American diner for breakfast (2 pancakes, 2 bacon and 2 eggs) and LM had toast & fruit. We also facetimed my mum as EVERYWHERE in Orlando seems to have wifi. When we got back to our hotel the cab was there and we headed up to Universal, which with the traffic took about 20 minutes. We got through bag check and to the park gates just for opening and headed straight to Islands of Adventure to take the Hogwarts Express. We actually ended up doing three trips, once to London then back to Hogsmeade and then back again to Kings Cross because each way is different but we ultimately wanted to be in Diagon Alley on Universal Studios end. As soon as I made LM get off the train I knew we were in for a rough day. Little Miss has no idea about anything Harry Potter related, absolutely nothing about the place interested her, not to mention it was really crowded, even at 8:30 am. She was scared when the dragon on top of Gringotts breathed fire and she wasn’t tall for any of the rides. However, thankfully I managed to pacify her with some Butterbeer ice cream to give me a chance to look around. We did the Olivanders Wand Experience and browsed in some shops. After the ice cream was gone I managed to entertain her with a Pygmy Puff which she enjoyed naming in Weasleys’ Wizarding Wheezes. I also got my hands on some Frozen Butterbeer which was nice, but after having a taste of Bee‘s hot butterbeer at lunch I have to say that was the best of the three available. By 10am I had to call it quits as LM just wasn’t enjoying it and by this point it was so crowded so we set off into Springfield. Again, not much interest to LM as she’s never watched The Simpsons, but she did at least get to go on Universal’s version of Dumbo. After walking a little more we finally found somewhere that made her happy, Fievel’s Playland which was a big adventure playground. I let her have an hour running around there before I headed over to Islands of Adventure to meet Bee, Chris and the girls.

By the time I walked from one park to the other, LM had fallen asleep in her pushchair and managed about 30/45 minutes sleep. In the mean time I met up with Bee and her family and we proceeded to walk around Islands of Adventure towards Hogsmeade again as I hadn’t had lunch. I also hadn’t managed to have a look around Hogsmeade first thing in the morning due to a cranky child. I had a dining card so I used it in The Three Broomsticks, and although they got my order wrong, it ended up being nice (chicken & ribs with the most amazing raspberry ice tea!) It was nice to sit down and chat properly to Bee as we hadn’t managed it the previous day. After lunch I decided to call it a day, LM was now awake and pretty much done so I headed to the exit while Bee, Chris and the Girls went to Universal for the rest of the day. On my way I bumped into Jennifer, a woman I knew from instagram and her daughter Soleil. The kids played together for a while before I had to catch the bus back to Kissimmee. The bus went via Florida Mall (I actually had to get a connection there) so since it was raining we went into the Mall. We had a look around some shops, the Disney Store where LM bought some Big Hero 6 Tsum Tsums and Hot Topic before settling in the food court for something to eat as I knew we wouldn’t be hungry enough to go to a restaurant back in Kissimmee. I went for Five Guys, mainly because Bee had raved about it but I’d never tried it. I had a kids bacon and cheese burger and LM had chips. Then we headed to catch the bus back to the hotel as although it wasn’t too late, I felt like we should call it a day. On the way out I discovered a Hallmark stand and splashed some cash, I really wish we had Hallmark over here, the Disney stuff is so nice! We were back to the hotel before 7pm so we watched some tv until LM fell asleep, then I read but I was definitely out like a light before 9pm!

In hindsight this was probably my least favourite day of the holiday. I don’t fault Universal, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is a must see, it’s amazing and captured the world so perfectly, I really wish I had a chance to enjoy it more but as long as LM is unaware of Harry Potter, I’ll probably be giving the park a miss in the future, it was a lot of money for such a short amount of time!