Trip to Disney and Universal

I've been a fan of Andrea's blog for awhile now and I was excited that today's Show and Tell Tuesday was all about favorite vacations! Hubby and I took a trip to Disney World and Universal Studios at the end of October as kind of a last big trip before kids and we had such a fun-filled week! We took almost 1500 pictures, so it was hard to narrow it down (but beware, this is a picture filled post!) but hopefully you enjoy this look back on a magical week!

Day One: Travel Day and Downtown Disney

We went back and forth deciding whether or not to fly or drive, but we ultimately decided to fly down there. Yes, it probably cost a bit more, but this way we had more time to enjoy down there. We also stayed at a Disney hotel, so we had free transportation to and from the airport!

 

We are all ready with our magic bands!

 

The Disney magic started right away with cartoons on the bus:

 

We finally arrived!

 

We stayed at the Pop Century resort, which is one of their value resorts. It's all decked out with memorabilia and decorations from the 50's to 90's. It was really cool! 

 

 

 

 

I absolutely loved everything Mickey Mouse themed including the little shampoo bottles! So cute!

 

After checking into our hotel and getting some much needed food, we took a bus over to Downtown Disney and did a lot of walking around and shopping!

 

 

Day Two: Islands of Adventure

Our first full day of vacation we took a cab over to Universal Studios and went to the Islands of Adventure park. Before our trip we did a lot of research and decided to get The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World, which has daily plans of all the Disney and Universal parks, what you should see in which order to avoid long wait times in line. It definitely worked! We got to all the parks at opening and basically had the parks to ourselves for the first couple hours! Definitely something I would recommend! 

 

 

We thought this was a fitting sign to our first day of vacation:

 

Our first glimpse of Hogwarts!!

 

Our first day! Look how empty it is!

 

 

Hogsmede! I was seriously excited for this part of the park!

 

 

 

I just loved all the details they put into everything! I seriously felt like I was right in the middle of the movie!

 

Haha something you probably wouldn't see together- Harry Potter and Jurassic Park!

 

Our first butterbeer! This stuff was seriously good! It was basically a cream soda with a butterscotch whipped cream on top. So good!!

 

 

 

 

Day Two: Universal Studios

We took a cab over to Universal Studios again and went to the Universal Studios park. 

Minions! 

 

 

Arrived right when the park opened again and it looks deserted! 

 

 

Of course had to get a picture in front of the Back to the Future delorean! 

 

 

Number 12 Grimmauld Place

 

Kreacher made an appearance once in awhile:

 

 

 

Entering Diagon Alley! They even had a sound of bricks moving at the entrance! 

 

 

 

I think the longest we had to wait for any ride was 20-30 minutes. Most of the time we walked right on! It's crazy how empty the queues were.

 

Of course I had to stop by the Lucy tribute! They had some of her costumes and old scripts from the show!

 

 

 

 

Waiting in line for another Butterbeer :)

 

We went to an animal show which was pretty neat! They had trained pigs and cats and birds and all sorts of other animals! This was the pug from Men in Black 2!

 

 

 

 

Day Three: Epcot

Our day 3 was a little bit easier of a day. We split our time at Epcot into 2 days, so we spent the morning and part of the afternoon here then went back to the hotel for a nap :)

We were there for Epcot's Food and Wine festival which was pretty cool! Food and drinks from all over the world. 

 

This was cool- we were at the aquarium during feeding time!  

 

The way they fed the stingrays was really neat. The trainer would hold the food in her hand and they would swim over it and grab the food out of her hand. She can tell the difference between the 5 in the tank, so if one came around again for more food, she'd hold her hand out like this and it would swim away! Crazy!

 

 

 

 

Day Four: Magic Kingdom

 

 

We got there at opening again for the opening ceremony, then they led you behind a rope to the different areas of the park. I guess when the Anna and Elsa meet and greet started, people would literally run there and trample people to the ground! So now they do this to prevent people from hurrying to their first stops. 

 

We went to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train first (which was at least a 75 minute wait the entire day we were there) and we basically walked right on!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We found a pretty good place to the right of the castle for the night show and Tinkerbell flew over us!

 

 

Day Five: Hollywood Studios

 

See, no lines!

 

 

The Star Tours ride was pretty cool! I think we went on it 3 times :)

 

 

Even though we were there the week of Halloween, Hollywood Studios was already decorating for Christmas!

 

 

We had lunch at Pizza Planet. The food wasn't the greatest, but the ambiance was cool! Since we were there for Halloween, we both got Mickey and Minnie ears :)

 

We had to see the Indiana Jones show!

 

And the stunt show was pretty cool too!

 

 

 

 

We went to the Frozen sing-along :)

 

And the Beauty and the Beast show!

 

Hollywood Studios night show was pretty cool! They sprayed water up and projected images on it!

 

 

 

Day Six: Epcot and Downtown Disney

We spent another morning at Epcot to see some of the attractions we missed the other day we were there. 

 

This ride was pretty cool! A create-your-own roller coaster my hubby wants to get if we win the lottery :)

 

 

 

Tired after a full week of fun. Waiting for the bus back to our hotel.

 

We stopped for drinks and some silly pictures :)

 

 

 

 

Some of the yummy treats at Downtown Disney! We may or may not have split one of those caramel apples :)

 

 

We ended our trip back at Epcot for their night show and of course a Mickey pretzel!! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was seriously such a fun trip! A ton of walking- we both wore our Fitbits and clocked about 10 miles a day! I'm already looking forward to being able to take our future kids back one day for more magical memories :) Now I'm definitely not a Disney expert by any means (I'd only been to Magic Kingdom once and my hubby was at Disney when he was a kid) but if you have any questions, feel free to let me know and I can try to answer them as best as I can!

I hope you all have a magical Tuesday :)