First off- if I tried to plan to be there for the opening day of ANYTHING, it would have been a nonexistent disaster 🤪 so the fact that we were actually at Universal the weekend this attraction opened is something amazing that I won’t ever forget!
Maddie and I got to visit Universal just a few days after she finished school, and I wasn’t sure if we would be able to make it back before summer was over… but I worked overtime every time she wasn’t with me and I got a Florida Resident discount at Cabana Bay in mid July (Maddie and I both LOVE this resort), so we were able to go down for one of the weekends I was off 😊
In the past I used to search hotel prices the day before I was due to go down to Disney or Universal… I have always been so excited to get to go away, even if it’s for one night that I usually don’t sleep well (or at all) the night before I go somewhere- so there have been times when I figured instead of fighting my excitement, why not use the energy and drive down the night before? Although I would have loved to have spent 3 nights down here for this visit, we did not- but we did arrive at the hotel around 8am, which is a great way to start the day!
We were not planning on going to early Park admission Friday morning because we wanted to go straight to Universal Studios and see Minion Land and go to ‘Bake My Day’ and get some treats before it got crowded.
After we checked out Minion Land, I wanted to revisit the Jurassic Park Tribute Store. I didn’t get many pictures the first time we went and I didn’t want to miss my opportunity since this has been my favorite tribute store so far (not hard to do since it was Jurassic Park!)
We went for a butterbeer after visiting the tribute store and it was so pleasantly uncrowded in Diagon Alley that I was able to read all the ads right outside ‘Globus Mundi’ for the first time I can remember! So cool! And by then Maddie was ready to hop over to Islands of Adventure and the Hogwarts Express had a very short wait 😃
Maddie wanted to go to Suess Landing once we got to Islands of Adventure, and it was already pretty hot outside so we headed to the book store to color and cool off 😎
Next up was Green Eggs and Ham! Since it was so hot out and there were no tables available in the shade, we went into Circus McGurkus and found some AC to eat the green eggs and ham in 🙃
We went to Jurassic Park next to see how long the wait for pteranodon flyers was, which turned into a little shopping and exploring the discovery center 😀
We got the message that our room was ready soon after this, so we headed back to the hotel to put our stuff in the room and go for a swim since it was so hot! We spent the afternoon at the pool, and a storm in the late afternoon forced us inside, which worked out because we wanted to go back to the park at night after it cooled down a bit.
It was a beautiful night 😍 Maddie was pooped from the long day… we rode Flight of the Hipogriff, got some food at the Three Broomsticks and rode the Suess Landing rides then went back to the hotel for the night.
The next morning we ‘slept in’ till about 0745 😊 it was great to not wake up to an alarm or be in a rush 🙃 and sleeping till 7 or 8 really does feel like sleeping in since I get up between 4 and 5am (at the latest) for work.
We headed to Universal first since we slept through early park admission at Islands of Adventure… which was totally fine since we were ready to check out Minion Cafe!!!
We hopped on the Hogwarts Express again over to Hogsmeade Village ❤️
We had the whole compartment to ourselves for the first time ever! 😃❤️
We were thinking we would do the water rides at that point, but then the Popeyes ride went down, so we found some cool water in the back of Camp Jurassic 😃
Her first crepe waiting for the animal show
I managed to convince Maddie to hop in line with me about an hour before the park closed… she wanted to ride the first minion ride, but we have done that before so I didn’t want to get in an hour long line for that ride… I thought we might get off Minion Blast before the park closed, so Maddie was ok with getting in line for the new ride.
Once Upon a Lifetime 