Friday we headed out to Orlando for spring break. We stopped in Mississippi the first night and ate at a wonderful pizza place. Tony's Pizzaria. I read good reviews about it and it did not disappoint. Jimmy ordered the gumbo pizza. We had our doubts but it was wonderful. Instead of a red sauce it had a rue topped with cheese and everything you would find in gumbo. Shrimp, chicken, sausage, and much more. It was amazing! It was a great start to our trip.
Our first two days were spent at universal Studios. Caden is really into big rides and this time since Paige was older we decided to give it a try. We had never been there so we were not sure what to expect.
We prepared by watching a few of the Harry Potter movies. Caden started reading the books but stopped. That is a post for another day. Lol. We knew ahead of time we would do all the touristy Harry Potter things. The kids bought interactive wands that could do "magic" all over Harry Potter world. They were pretty neat. And of course we had butter beer. I am not a big fan but Caden loves root beer so it was his favorite. I did try the butter beer ice cream and it was so good! The rides were very detailed and fun. They really did a good job of making the movie come to life. I will say we had a giggle at some of the people walking around. I guess it is the equivalent of what a Star Wars convention would look like. Which is fine if that is your thing. We liked the novelty of it but at one point even Caded asked if the people walking around thought they were really wizards. Ha! Both the kids thought the people around us were taking it a little too serious. Lol.
There were different sections to the park. Simpson land was our next stop where Paige found a giant pink donut. Caden also had a flaming Moe. An orange drink with dry ice in it to make it smoke. They were both good. Jimmy and I both watched the Simpson's as kids so we got all the details of that part of the park.
Unfortunately since the kids have never seen the show they did not really get it and the Simpson ride was our least favorite. I am still trying to figure out how they thought it was a good idea to make a kids show based on a rude kid who's dad drinks constantly. Ha!
The rest of the park was great. Most of the rides are 4d type rides that are so realistic it feels like you are on an actual roller coaster. Spider man, Transformers, and The Minions were our favorites. We rode all of them several times. Caden was able to get his thrills on rides like Rip Tide and the double dragon. The bigger and more loops the better for him. I was a little glad Paige was just a couple of inches short of being able to ride them. But she was able to ride the other roller coasters and loved them. I did do a little research ahead of time and knew that their water rides got you totally soaked. We brought ponchos in case it rained but opted instead to wear them on those rides. Good thing we did. One poor girl was in jeans and a sweat shirt. Let's just say she was not happy when she got off the ride. They had dryers set up after the rides but they did not look like they were helping people much. We even brought our flip flops when we saw people ringing out their socks and shoes the day before. I wish I had pictures of it but we had to put all our belongings into lockers for those rides.
We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel right by the park which was great. There was a trail that we were able to take directly to the park. We were also able to take a boat ride when we were tired. And since we stayed on that property we were able to get express passes. It works similar to the fast pass at Disney. There were only two Harry Potter rides that you could not use them on so basically we bypassed the lines all day long. It was great! They also have a City Walk that is similar to downtown Disney. We ate there the second night. Overall we loved Universal studios. I am glad we waited until the kids were older though. Some of the rides get pretty intense. But we will be going back for sure!
