Florida 2016: A Walker family vacation and adventure

Blog Part 1

Arrival, Day 1, Day 2
I have no idea how to put such a big vacation into one blog post, so I thought I would do it in parts. I probably will do it into 2 parts. I would do one per day, but I feel like that should have been blogged as the day ended which was not possible for me then.

Arrival

This was my 2nd time travelling with my baby by plane, thank goodness I had my mother-in-law with me. She is just an angel of a big help! I don't think the journey to Florida would have been fun if it was me and husband only with our baby. xD Llyr was so good on the plane! He just played and watched the clouds and he was a really good boy all in all. We couldn't have asked for a much better time with him. We got to the hotel to meet my husband and my mom-o-in-law who drove all the way to Florida from Kentucky. It was a 14 hour drive, crazy, right? After we settled in we decided to have our supper, and it was weird because most of the fast foods and restaurants were closed! Unless you were at the drive-thru. So we had to look for another place to eat at. Luckily, the owner of the restaurant we were standing in front of, told us there is a place called Ale House which was still open and will be open until 2AM. So we went there! The food was REALLY good, and we had a fun meal. *wink wink*

Day 1: Disney Springs
a.k.a Downtown Disney

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This place was so much bigger than I thought it would be. There was a not-so-hidden area that I didn't see until my brother-in-law pointed it out. Okay, my husband pointed it out too, but *cough* ^_^ So, we went way inside of the downtown area to find a glorious Lego place! If I had known sooner, we would have been there faster. The best part of this area, for me, is the Ganachery -- they have awesome chocolate!

Day 2: Universal Studios Orlando and Island of Adventures

a.k.a the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

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THIS WAS THE BEST THING THAT HAPPENED TO ME YET!

Florida has been awesome so far. The weather was awesome, I was getting tired of the dry air, haha. The food has been so good, seafood is love. The sights, wow, I never thought I would palm trees until I stopped seeing them. Then my mind was blown by the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! It was a DREAM COME TRUE. I can picture myself going there everyday and still finding new things everyday.

I had a long talk about getting these tickets that was a park-to-park for 1 day, because only if you get these tickets would you be able to go on the Hogwarts Express which was also an attraction. 

We arrived there with a problem. We had no tickets yet, and we needed the person with the credit card so it can be printed. Well, rain on my parade, why don't ya. But it was fixed because of the positive people around me, the Walker family is really a 'we'll-fix-it!' bunch. Gotta love that. Also, I have to mention that this day, my baby was with his lola and lolo (grandparents) and they went to Animal Kingdom.

So we were able to get in around 9:10AM instead of my wish to be inside before 8AM, haha. Anyway, I'm so glad we were able to go in. I was such a drama kid while waiting for my ticket. I thought I would not be able to go in, I was silently breaking into pieces on the inside. Anyway, we got in! We made a rush to go to Diagon Alley! Of course, the main purpose was Harry Potter.

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We got to the King's Cross Station where you can ride from Diagon Alley (London Underground) to Hogsmeade (a little beyond Hogwarts). Right in front of it was the Knight Bus with Stan and Ernie. ^_^ Loved Stan, he was so in character! Loved the bus too, I wish we could enter it xD

The moment you pass through the brick wall, you'd see how glorious Diagon Alley is, with the Gringotts Dragon in the middle which breathes fire every 20 minutes (give or take). 

There are a lot of shops in Diagon Alley, and it's pretty much on point. It was unbelievable how you would just forget about the Florida or wherever you're from because you cannot see anything else but Diagon Alley. Be immersed in this magical place! It is breathtaking to be there, surrounded by your magical-kin and muggle-born witches and wizards alike. If you have some $$$ to spare (more like saved-up) you can buy your wizard's robe, wand, and everything! My husband bought us wands, and they are interactive, so we just performed charms, and hexes and jinxes everywhere!

After you've had your fill of Diagon Alley head to the train station where you can find Platform 9 3/4.

It's beautiful.

You get to go through the Platform like Harry did, I have a video of it here. <-- click

The Hogwarts Express was a big attraction, since both your window and door actually shows you scenes from the movie, it was magical. Taking videos inside was not really allowed, but you get to enjoy it, it's really good. Spoiler Alert: I high-fived a Dementor. xD

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Hogsmeade was amazing! It was not as big as what Diagon Alley seemed to be, but the everything would just make a Harry Potter fan feel at home. It's a good thing we didn't eat lunch at the Leaky Cauldron, because the food at the Three Broomsticks was awesome! We had ribs, and chicken, mashed potatoes and corn. Oh it was the biggest most expensive meal I've paid for so far, but it was so good. Also, the butterbeer was fantastic! If you're willing to fork off some $$$ then you can have a souvenir mug.

Sorry for the crappy photo of the Hogwarts Castle, I was too short to have a great photo. T^T but this was the BEST RIDE ever!! It was supposed to be a simulation of riding a broom, it was so fun! There is also a Hogwarts Castle tour. At the Escape to Gringotts ride which I forgot to mention, there were moving paintings of goblins, which looked like a screen, sorry, it just did. The moving paintings in the Hogwarts castle though was so unbelievably good! It looked just like paintings. It was everything I imagined and dreamed of seeing. I just wish that they had the Black Lake like in USJ (I really wanna go there). The Journey to the Forbidden Forest is the best ride there by far!

Anyway, I have to end this post now, or I will spoil too much. I just had the best time there. 2.18.16 will forever be remembered. My trip "home".