Today was a whirlwind, and we are all exhausted. I wanted to update as we were going, but my phone didn’t have good connection and I wanted to “be” with my family. We didn’t have much downtime either.
We dragged on ourselves out of bed for early park entry. Arrived at the gates at 7:20 and there were a few families in front of us. They opened right at 8:00 for early park guests and we made our way towards hogsmeade. They started making announcements that hagrids was down and could be delayed for hours.
I wanted to stay in the area, so we went to forbidden journey. Only dh and I rode, the kids and my mom sat out. They walked through the castle with us and ducked out at the child swap exit. Sadly, the photo app was down so we didn’t get our photo.
We did some more magic
And tried to find breakfast. After failing that, we noticed they were letting people in the standby for hagrids, but saying it is still down. We took a chance and it paid off, we were on it in about fifteen minutes. Dd7 was really nervous, she was actually shaking and crying but insisted she wanted to do it. The wizard that helped us into the bikes really checked to make sure that she was okay with riding before sending us off. As soon as it took off, she was giggling and putting her hands up! She loved it.
Finally, we found the breakfast of champions! The only place to eat before 10:00 was the churro stand in Jurassic Park, I think it’s called natural selections? They had pastries and fruit but of course my kids chose the blue churro
Then we did everything in Jurassic Park. We used express to ride river adventure in just minutes. DD11 wanted to do pteranadon flyers, and I thought she could, if she took dd7 to ride them. Well, dd7 is a short round and not tall enough to ride with a minor (she barely squeaked by on hagrids!) So I had to ride with dd7 and DD11 was just out of luck. The rest of camp Jurassic was so cool though! All three loved exploring. I should have taken a picture but we were having too much fun!
We met Blue! The kids loved it but my mom was too scared to stand with us 
Then the Triwizard rally. It was very sunny and hot, beware, there is no shade at all near the stage! We actually opted not to go back for the frog choir because of this. The show was entertaining though.
We needed some cool indoor rides badly, so we headed to Dr Seuss land. The cat in the hat is such a cool ride (temperature-wise) that we rode it even though we already had yesterday. We also did the trolly train and red fish blue fish again. And we met some friends.
Lunchtime! Okay, the three broomsticks took forever. Over an hour total before we were sitting down and eating. A lot of the waiting was in direct sun. This is the only thing we had any kind of actual wait for.
We were going to head to toon lagoon and super hero island after lunch. Dd7 was dressed in hopes of meeting her favorite super hero, captain America. But the weather had other plans. A storm ahut everything down, so we decided to head to universal Orlando earlier than planned for some of the indoor stuff. That probably wasn’t necessary, as we rode on Jimmy Fallon and the storm was passed by the time we got off. The kids LOVED the Jimmy Fallon ride. They love his bits, I let them watch some of the kid-friendly clips, and they just thought the whole experience was great.
Then dh and I rode the mummy. That was a lot of fun, I loved it. For some reason our ride photo isn’t coming up in my account. Then men in black, also not showing up. Also a hit with the kids! They wanted to do it again.
Simpsons!
We had a reservation at toothsome for dinner and that was neat. I got the Reuben but only ate half. It was great, but filling. I also had a chocolate old fashioned, which was a great splurge. Ds12 had the shrimp Mac n cheese, but he said it was spicy and he only ate about half too. DD11 had a chocolate waffle, she said it was very rich.
Sadly, DD11 started showing signs of heat stroke at dinner. I really thought she was going to pass out. We got her home and she took a cool bath and had some water and she’s feeling better, but I wonder if we tried to do too much. The crazy thing is, she was fine and kept asking to do more stuff even during dinner, then suddenly she went pale. Tomorrow is a rest day, but we do have brunch reservations at ohana. I’m hoping she is okay to go.
But on a happy note, how cute is this et picture
