Walkin' On Sunshine...in the Sunshine State!

This crazy adventure started about a month ago when I walked in from work and my dad asked, "Hey Ray!  What would you think if me, your mom, you, and Diane went to Hawaii for Christmas?"  My response? "Ummmmmm...*cricket* *cricket*"  Our family has always been open to spontaneous trips or "'ticular" as we like to call it (long story on why we call it that), but this was a little bit crazy, especially since there had been no previous discussion about any kind of trip.  When my mom came home, my dad pitched the idea to her and we all agreed that we did not want to be away from the rest of the family for Christmas, but that Hawaii was an awesome idea.  So, my parents got on the phone with my sister, who loves planning trips like this and about an hour later, my mom came downstairs and said, "The flights are booked!  We're going to Florida from December 17th through the 23rd!"  My response? "Ummmm...how did we get from Hawaii to Florida?  and what is there to do in Florida?"  The answer to the first question was that it is super expensive to go to Hawaii in the winter; apparently, people that live in colder climates flock to Hawaii for some sunshine this time of year and drive up the prices of everything.  The answer to the second question was obvious: Disney World AND The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios.

So, fast forward three weeks and it really happened!  We flew to Florida!  I had never been there before and I was way excited!

We stayed in Disney's Pop Century Resort and we arrived there around 2 o'clock in the morning.  Our hotel was amazing!  It isn't one of Disney's super fancy hotels, but it got a definite A+ for atmosphere and cleanliness.  Here are some shots of it from various days of our trip. 

The front of the hotel!  It was decade themed and had memorabilia and popular items, fads, etc. from each decade beginning with the 50s and going through the 90s.  Each different building of rooms was themed with a particular decade.  We stayed in one of the 1970s buildings.

 Yep!  I'm a child of the 80s!

 Giant foosball!

 This huge Mickey was right in front of our building!

This is the view from the elevators that were right by our room.  I loved it!

The next morning we got up way early and went to Epcot.  Diane and I went when the park first opened and my parents joined us a little later.  There was SO much to see!  I was giddy when I saw the famous Epcot ball that I'd heard of all my life. 

When Diane and I first got there we went on Test Track, which was awesome, and then went on a ride called Mission to Mars.  BIG mistake.  Both of us felt SO sick after that ride.  I had never gotten sick or dizzy on a ride in my entire life until we went on this one and I seriously almost puked, as did Diane.  To top it off, the ride itself wasn't even cool and definitely was not worth the sick feeling we had afterwards.  BUT we were at Disney World, so we really couldn't complain.

After we met up with our parents, we went to the section of Epcot where they have little villages representing different countries.  We visited Mexico, China, Germany, and Norway.  Afterwards, we went to Disney's Hollywood Studios.  They had a mock-up of Grauman's Chinese Theatre, complete with celebrity hand prints and signatures in the concrete in front of it.  Here's an awesome one! 

Love it!

We went on the Great Movie Ride, which was actually super awesome and it went through a bunch of famous scenes (diorama style) from great movies over the years.  I was in awe of their recreation of "Munchkin Land" from The Wizard of Oz!

How awesome is that!?  And the pictures don't even do it justice!

Next, we were on a quest to find the "Singing in the Rain" umbrella.  My cousin and his wife went to Disney World a few months ago and took a picture with this umbrella and since "Singing in the Rain" is one of my very favorite movies, I was super jealous and determined to find the umbrella for a picture of my own.  My awesome cousin was kind enough to tell me where to look for it and...my dream came true!

I couldn't get as close to it as I would have liked since it was roped off to make way for the Christmas light display, but I was still super excited!

We were able to tour the back lot, play in the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids playground, wander around the park, and then ended the night with the Beauty and the Beast show.  It was awesome!  I love that Disney always has top notch performances; this one was certainly no exception!

The following morning, Diane and I woke up early and went to the Extra Magic Hours at the Animal Kingdom and my parent's joined us a little later.  We went on the safari as soon as we got there and I was really surprised at how close we were able to get to the animals. 

I was also amazed at how pretty this park was.  Here I am with Expedition Everest (another awesome ride) in the background.  I think the background of this picture is beautiful!

Here I am in front of the park's "Tree of Life"

We were able to see a lot of cool stuff, but perhaps the highlight of this park was the Lion King show.  It was amazing!  The costumes, the music, the dancing, the acrobatics, everything was awesome!

When we finished everything at the Animal Kingdom, we went over to the Magic Kingdom for the rest of the day.  I was really, really excited to go to the Magic Kingdom because that's the park that's supposed to be the most like Disneyland and I LOVE Disneyland!  When we got there, however, I noticed that there is one major difference between Disneyland and Magic Kingdom: atmosphere.  It lacked the magical feeling that Disneyland has in such abundance.  BUT it was still pretty cool and we got to do some super awesome stuff.  For example, Magic Kingdom still has some of the attractions that Disneyland no longer has.  So, we got to see Country Bear Jamboree!!!  I used to love this show when I was a kid and was so sad when Disneyland got rid of it. It totally made my day! 

We got to see the Hall of Presidents, which was also super cool!  At Disneyland, we have "Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln", which I have always loved and this presentation was just as good.  The Tiki Room was another great experience and then, of course, there's the castle, which was absolutely stunning! 

After a while, my parents went back to the hotel and Diane and I went did the Haunted Mansion and climbed the Swiss Family Tree House!  I remember the Swiss Family Tree House at Disneyland from my childhood, but in Anaheim it's been changed to Tarzan's Tree House.  So, this was a very happy reunion!  Next, Diane and I got pineapple whips and floats from the Dole refreshment stand and then went on Small World, which is WAY cooler at Disneyland and the Snow White ride, which is cooler at Magic Kingdom.  So, I guess it all evens out, right?  After that, we called it a night and went back to the hotel.  The next morning, Diane and I went back to the Studios park to see if we could get on Midway Mania. I have done this ride many times at California Adventure and I love it; Diane had never been on it.  The line was kinda long, but we decided that it was worth the wait.  The space where you wait in lone was awesome!  It was decorated so that you had the perspective of a toy and everything else was big.  If you have to wait in line, you might as well wait in one like this:

 ...and this

 ...and this

...and this!  

There was so much to look at that the line didn't seem to take long at all!

Here are just a couple of other shots from our morning: 

After we finished up the last few things at Studios, we went to Epcot and met up with our parents.

We had done pretty much all of the rides on our first day at Epcot, so our goal was to finish up seeing the different country villages.

Our first stop was America, where we heard these awesome carolers

and saw a great video presentation.  We also visited France, where we saw a beautifully done video, Morocco, Japan, Italy, Canada, and England and the rest of the UK.  The countries were very well done and it was nice to browse around and see the various hallmarks of different parts of the world.

The next day, Wednesday, was a little bit different because we left the Disney compound and arranged for a shuttle to take us to Universal Studios Florida's Islands of Adventure park where we were able to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!  This was the main reason for our visit to this park, but we found that the whole thing was very well-done and had tons to offer.

 Hogwarts Castle

And, of course, we had to try the Butter Beer.  It was yummy and tasted like cream soda with a butterscotch twist.  It was topped with a super sweet cream that also tasted very butterscotch-y.  We also tried treacle fudge, and I bought a couple of chocolate frogs and Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.

Universal really went all out for this and it was amazing down to the smallest detail.  Also, the people who worked in Hogsmead and Diagon Alley were really friendly and completely in character.  If they saw people taking pictures, they would go and pose with them.  This happened to us a couple of times.  I thought it was really cool that so much thought was put into making it awesome and authentic for the multitude of Harry Potter fans that flocked to see it.

 In front of The Three Broomsticks

I could honestly go on and on about this part of the park; we decided that this section alone was worth the full price of admission.  Everything else was just icing on the cake, as they say.

The next part of the park that we spent lots of time in was the Dr. Seuss land.  Again, very detailed and true to Seuss' work.  Whimsical!  

 There were nods to most, if not all, of Dr. Seuss' books...even the lesser known ones.

 They did a musical production of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"!

All of the rides in this "land" were from Suess books.  They had a Cat in the Hat ride, a Sneeches ride, etc.  They even had a carousel that had some of Seuss' craziest characters from his stories instead of plain carousel horses.  We spent a ton of time here and we had a lot of fun!

They also had a Marvel comic book section that was extremely well-done, as well as an awesome cartoon section.  We didn't, however, spend as much time in those areas since there wasn't quite as much to do.

 The Hulk!

Wossamotta U from Bullwinkle, of course!  Love it!

We had an AMAZING day at Universal Florida's Islands of Adventure!  If you ever visit that part of the country, it is well worth a visit!

Now, back to Disney...

On our last day in Florida, we decided to tie up any loose ends and go to whichever park we still had stuff left to do in.  Most of the day was spent in the Magic Kingdom.  We went on the Carousel of Progress, which was completely new to me since it had been taken out of Disneyland well before I had the chance to see it.  I actually thought it was REALLY cool!  I'm a nerd, but I love history and thinking about how things used to be and how people used to live.  It's always fascinated me and I was actually bummed when the ride/show got over.  Then, it was over to the People Mover, another blast from the past!  It moved a little faster than I had remembered, but it was awesome, just the same.  After that, I insisted that we take a picture in front of the castle.  Unfortunately, people are kinda rude sometimes and pretty much insisted on walking right through people's pictures...including ours.  So here're the 2 best pictures that we got.

 Me

All of us!

The last "blast from the past" thing we did was explore Tom Sawyer Island.  Again, they used to have one at Disneyland, but have now made it pirate themed instead.  So, it was nice to be back at Harper's Mill and Aunt Polly's house.  : )

We had a wonderful day!  Before we left the park, we treated ourselves to one of Disney's classic ice cream sundaes and shopped for souvenirs.  Then, we headed back to the hotel and packed up before our flight early the next morning.  We had an amazing week at Disney World and Universal Studios!  I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to go and that the four of us were able to have a great time together!