If you didn’t read the first part of our Florida Vacation recap, you can read it here: Florida Vacation: Kennedy Space Center, Disney Hollywood Studios, and Disney Epcot
Despite feeling really tired from our evening at Epcot, we decided to start our day early and arrive at Universal Studios & Universal Island of Adventure when they opened the park. We were hoping for cooler temps, shorter lines, and an early evening.
On our last trip to Florida, we only visited Island of Adventure, which at that time had the only Harry Potter attractions. Since then, they have also built some Harry Potter at Universal Studios along with the Hogwarts Express, but you have to purchase the park hopper pass to ride the train. So, we navigate two parks.
I loved Universal Studios. It is movie magic and was super adorable. Plus, it has significant shorter lines, some as low as 10-20 minutes. That was a nice break.
We rode the Hogwarts Express to Universal Island of Adventure and walked around the Harry Potter area. We had lunch at one of the restaurants and then rode the Jurassic Park ride, which we didn’t do last time. I also rode one of the Harry Potter rides as the newest ride to open had a wait time of over 120 minutes all day. No way!
Since had been to Island of Adventure before and didn’t really want to wonder around all day, we rode the train back to Universal Studios and I rode some rides while Kenyon sat out. We loved the new addition of Harry Potter Diagon Alley and I rode one of the new rides. Harry Potter magic is always so neat to see.
We visited Chocolate Emporium outside the park before we left and enjoyed a very yummy dessert.
Part of deciding to wrap up early was so we could go to this local dinner show called Capone’s. I am so glad we did. We had the best time and I even got on stage (by accident).
The show has a full buffet and drinks, alcohol too, are included in the ticket price. The staff are in character all evening and when you arrive early, you can play blackjack our roulette in the bar area for a prize. I didn’t win but our ticket also included two shot glasses as a souvenir. We also took a photo upon our arrival and purchased the magnet.
The show was set during prohibition and we were supposed to be part of the Italian Opera Society Group when the cops showed up. We were given family names, our group the Marinara Family. When the cop was talking to audience members I introduced myself as Lindsay Marinara, which got a few laughs and ended up with me and other lady on stage to join the performance number.
I suppose I could blame it on the alcohol.
Our final park was Disney Magic Kingdom. By this point we were flat out exhausted. We went for another early day and got there when it opened so we could have cooler temps. The lines weren’t shorter though and the one ride I really wanted to go on had a wait of over 120 minutes all day. There was another ride I’d been wanting to go on that was over 90 minutes all day. I just didn’t have it in me.
We still had a good time but after all the park days strung together, it was a lot. We ended walking a ton of steps over our days in Florida.
I am thankful for WW, my weight loss journey, and the ability to be able to push through this much activity.
We had an early flight the next morning and left the 85 degree temps in Florida arriving to 35 degree temps in Dallas. You can read about our Dallas adventures here: I CAN. I WILL. WATCH ME.
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