Santa surprised us with a trip to Orlando for Christmas. We visited Universal Studios, Downtown Disney and Walt Disney World.
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was everyone’s favorite. The boys got wands at Ollivander’s, Jessica got a Time-Turner necklace and we drank some Butter Beer (good!) at the Hog’s Head Inn. We rode the Dragon Challenge a few times, the Forbidden Journey inside Hogwarts (amazing ride) and visited Honeydukes for some chocolate frogs and Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans.
Fun story: our last night there we went over to the Universal Studios park so the guys could ride the Rip Ride Rockit roller coaster while Jessica and Michelle went to the Lucy store. We only had a couple hours left before the park closed and the line for the Rockit was estimated to be an hour. Stacy and the boys got in line—about five minutes later one of the park employess was standing nearby and Stacy asked her about the ride. She walked over and asked if the boys had been on it before, we said no—she said “get out of line and follow me” and she took us around the side of the building, up a few flights of stairs and straight to the front of the line, no waiting. Her name is Amy.
After our ride we went back downstairs and Amy was waiting for us. “I have another surprise for you” she said, and took us to get a framed picture of us on the ride. While we were waiting for the photo to print she asked if we wanted to ride again—we said yes and she took us back upstairs to the front of the line again. We rode twice in a span of about ten minutes. Thanks Amy!
December 25-31, 2011