Florida, Part 6: Disney's Animal Kingdom

I have to say that I have resisted Disney Theme parks for a long time. The only time I have been to Disney World was in 1986 or 1987 (by my mom's recollection), when we visited the Magic Kingdom and Epcot (my mom remembers being forced into Space mountain because I was too small to ride alone).   My family and I did visit Anaheim, CA's Disneyland on a family trip to SoCal in 1992, but I haven't been back since and really didn't feel that I was missing out. 

I know many Disney enthusiasts, and I know families that go back year after year.  The idea of paying a lot of money to fight crowds and wait in lines does not really appeal to any of us. However, I didn't think we could swing by Orlando and not go to a Disney Park, ang going in for one day every few decades didn't seem like a huge deal (again, I do love rides, but was a bit gun-shy to get motion sick again). There were four theme park options-- Magic Kingdom (the classic with Cinderella castle), Epcot (space- and culture-themed), Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood. With our kids' interests being less character- and roller-coaster driven, we chose Animal Kingdom, which seemed a bit less intense anyway.  

We entered the parking area and got to the park right before the 8 a.m. "rope drop," since we knew crowds would be big on the weekend.  We were joined by many enthusiastic people in Disney gear and costumes waiting to enter right as the rides opened. 

Mindy, Riaan, and her kiddos were so brave and were able to join us for this day, as well, which was a huge treat and blessing, as we got to see and talk to them a whole lot more (especially because of the long lines!)! 

We first headed to "Pandora," the section of the park featuring the world of Avatar. 

The must-ride attraction was Avatar Flight of Passage, and we only had about a 30 min wait. It simulated flying on the back of a banshee, and was fantastic (Kelvin and Niall's favorite ride of the past two days)! Unfortunately, while Mindy's older boys were tall enough to ride, they decided last-minute to sit it out, and Riaan missed his chance to jump on :(. 

We then headed to the super tame bioluminescent Na'vi River Journey. 

The longest line we encountered (a bit over an hour) was next in "Africa" at the Kilimanjaro Safari area; however, the kids did very well playing as we waited. 

Riaan thought the safari vehicle resembled a refurbished school bus, and I think he was right! 

Mindy and Riaan, having just moved from South Africa, where they've spent a lot of time at their guest house near Kruger NP, probably weren't that impressed with the Disney version of the safari, but the kids were delighted with spotting the animals.

Black Rhino (which I never saw in the wild on two trips to Africa!)

A Crash of (White) Rhinos!

Mean old hippos

Giraffes, my second-favorite animal, (formerly my first, now supplanted by the Australian echidna)! 

African Elephants

African Wild Dogs

Lions

We ate a quick packed lunch (Mindy and I think alike, not wasting time or expense getting in line for food) and cooled off at one of the live shows,  Festival of the Lion King, which had live acrobats and singing along to the popular songs.

We were seated in the warthog (Pumba) section!

Everyone's favorite meerkat, Timon.

We walked through some more natural areas of the park in the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail (seeing mountain gorillas in the wild in Rwanda or Uganda is on my travel bucket list!), followed by a 4D Zootopia show which was really cool for the kids!

Fish, fish, and more fish! The Otter Grotto was also very popular

Mindy and I really wanted to ride a fast rollercoaster, so she and I headed to "ASIA," decorated very much like Nepal, to do Expedition Everest, a speeding ride through the Himalayas and dodging the Yeti. The boys decided to sit it out (with good reason; the back half of the ride was the scariest, dropping backwards!), and after a 30-min wait, we were on!  This ride was my favorite attraction I did at the park (and even better, no motion sickness!). We caught up about our various hiking adventures over the years and thought about our dream mountains to climb in the future :).

While we were jetting through the Himalayas, the kids cooled off with some ice cream and walked the Maharaja Jungle Trek to see some Asian animals including tigers, monkeys, and a komodo dragon.

Iver and I finished our day with another river ride, Kali River Rapids (probably named after Nepal's Kali Gandaki river). We got wet, but not soaked, and the 3.5-minute ride was slightly disappointing after our hour-long wait, but it was still fun!  

While we were rapids-riding, Kelvin, Niall, Riaan, and Jax got in line again for Avatar, but only Niall and Riaan rode, as Jax decided last-minute not to get on, even thought he did complete the ride earlier with Mindy so Kelvin watched him (Mindy had Leo in the stroller)! We needed to make sure Riaan (who doesn't love theme parks and crowds but was a huge trooper to join us!) got on that #1 ride!

All in all, our verdict was that we preferred Universal Studios to Disney but we had a wonderful time with Mindy and her family, which truly made my week and trip (I'm also very picky about with whom I travel or with whom I would be willing to brace Disney. Mindy is truly the best!). I know we experienced just a fraction of what these resorts have to offer (maybe in another 30 or 40 years I'll come back for Magic Kingdom or Epcot?), but I definitely got my theme park fix for a good, long while! 

Florida, Part 5: Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure

When we were planning this Florida trip, there were a few things we had to negotiate. I really wanted to take the kids to see the World of Harry Potter (which is split over a few of the Universal Parks) and I didn't think we could visit Orlando with the kids at these ages and not go to one of the Disney parks, even though the others besides me are not big amusement ride-lovers (meanwhile, Kelvin wanted to squeeze in a little side day-trip [!] to the Bahamas, which I shot down extremely quickly with only one week here). The kids were really into Harry Potter about a year ago and still enjoy the books/movies and magic spells (avada kedavra, the killing curse, is not infrequently uttered in our house!).

We did settle on spending one day at Universal Studios, including two parks (Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida), which are linked by footpath or (more interestingly) the Hogwarts Express, an attraction in and of itself (Disney's is to come tomorrow). We stayed at a condo with a pool (Blue Heron) which was close (10-20 minutes) from the main theme parks.

Since we have early (5:30 a.m. Iver, even on EST) risers, we took advantage of getting in early ("rope drop" is the term around these parts or right at opening time [8:00 in our case]), and had very short (like 5-10 min!) lines for the first couple of rides. Chat GPT helped Kelvin plan our day based on our interests (and it did a great job!).

We headed first to Hogsmeade and the Hogwarts Castle, which is interesting in and of itself to walk through. We first rode Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey (Niall just made the height requirement), which was an immersive experience including soaring (virtually) over quidditch fields, among other scenes (more than just a ride). Iver screamed the entire time, but, while scared, said he still enjoyed it! We had (free) nearby lockers prior to getting in line to store our backpack. 

Sorting Hat (Go Gryffindor!)

We then rode the nearby (and extremely gentle) Flight of the Hippogriff.

Hagrid Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure was a highly rated coaster (with the longest line, although our 75 minute estimate was only about 35 minutes), so we jumped into line. However, by the time we reached the start, Iver balked on riding altogether, and Niall ended up being too short (he was actually happy about this!). I rode as a single rider (with a teenager here with her cheer team on a trip) and had a great time on the fast coaster, including one 17-foot drop, and fast speeds.  We could take advantage of "rider-switch" where Kelvin, after watching kids, could hop on without waiting again, but he declined (he doesn't love coasters like I do)! 

I snapped this unicorn photo as we came to a stop at the end of the ride.

We wandered around Hogsmeade village shops for a bit, including sampling the butterscotch-flavored butterbeer, and entering Ollivander's Wand Shop and the sweets shop Honeydukes. (You can purchase a very expensive interactive HP wand and do "spells" in some locations in these parks, but the kids didn't know what they were missing).  We saw lots of people in Harry Potter-themed costumes/shirts. 

Since HP attractions were our priority and we'd basically not had to wait in any long lines, we headed via the Hogwarts Express train, to Kings Cross Station /London, in the other park (Universal Studios, Florida). 

Berth G ("G" for "Gringotts," the attendant told us) 

Fans of Harry Potter know about Platform 9 3/4! 

Knight Bus

We headed through Diagon Alley to Gringott's Bank.

The goblins were busy at work, delighting the kids. I heard (but we didn't try this) that you can even exchange "muggle money" for wizard galleons! 

The Daily Prophet photos really moved!

Escape from Gringotts was our favorite ride-- not too scary or "rollercoaster-y"!

Universal Studios has a bigger kid-friendly section and we calmed down with some gentler rides, almost all of which had very short wait times (<15 min).

Our kids haven't seen E.T. yet, but they will!

Despicable Me had a slight delay (taken care of by the minions) but the ride was fairly tame (although pretty jerky in motion, which I found started to upset my stomach!).

I then solo-rode nearby Revenge of the Mummy, probably the scariest coaster I went on (mostly in the dark, and fast), but when I exited, I almost vomited in the gift shop! I am very prone to motion sickness but I really enjoy roller coasters (surprising as a fun-stopper, eh?!), but I thought avoiding "spinny" rides would be enough to keep me feeling fine (apparently NOT at my age!). 

I really shouldn't have joined in on the Krusty the Clown Simpsons ride, as I had to keep my eyes closed to fight the nausea and then spent the next one and a half hours feeling terrible (but didn't actually throw up), but the kids enjoyed it (they're not very familiar with the Simpsons yet).

We spent enough time on solid ground to where I was feeling well enough to visit some more attractions and so we headed back to Islands of Adventure.

Velociraptor Encounter at Jurassic Park World

We headed to super tame Seuss Landing, but ended up (for unknown reasons) getting stuck mid-rail on the trolley for a few minutes (the staff was very apologetic, however, and gave us each one Express pass to be used on another ride in the park!).

The Cat in the Hat

We finished the day a bit after 4 p.m. in Toon Lagoon, featuring Popeye and our only water ride (Popeye and Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges). I had to talk Iver into riding with me, as it guaranteed "YOU WILL GET WET," but he understood that "YOLO" and it was "wet but not scary" and was so happy he joined in (it was also about 87 degrees outside).  K and Niall (who chose to abstain), even squirted us from above from Olive Oyl's ship!  We used our complimentary Express passes, and Iver loved it so much he rode again, brave and solo the second time!

Super Soaked but oh-so-happy!

Despite the heat and my crazy motion sickness (did I learn my lesson? Am I just too old for amusement park rides?), we didn't have to battle crazy lines and the day went super smoothly.  I tend to be skeptical of over-commercialized "rackets," but we all really enjoyed the movie magic experience (especially the Wizarding World of Harry Potter-- the kids were at just about perfect ages!), and we had a fantastic day at these two Universal Studios Theme Parks.  

It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.

- Albus Dumbledore, in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone