This part of the trip is all thanks to the fact that I have an amazing hubby who knew how much I liked Harry Potter, and who knew I would never justify spending $80 a piece on park tickets to Universal Studios.
So, the day before the wedding while we were working on setting up the Reception Hall with our families, the hubby surprised me with tickets to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Placed within the wedding decor I packed, was a picture frame with two characters from the movies on broomsticks with our faces on the bodies. He is just so cute in trying to surprise me, and I am clearly so preoccupied that I don't even act excited - which I really was! And my indifferent response was caught on tape.
Surprise Wedding Gift from Sarah Pickel on Vimeo.
Surprise Wedding Gift from Sarah Pickel on Vimeo.
How I wish we could re-do that moment, so that hubby knows how much his gift meant to me. Maybe jump up and down a bit, or hug him, or at least stop unwrapping all those candles! We had previously discussed going but I just though the tickets were too much and it was too far to travel when there was plenty to do right there in Sarasota area. That was just an excuse - I really wanted to go!
So, on Day 3 of the honeymoon we set out for Orlando. It was a two hour drive to Orlando, which really wasn't that bad considering we almost crossed the entire the state of Florida.
See the castle behind our heads!
By the time we arrived the park was already packed full of people. It was a very sunny, hot, and humid day, so we loaded up on sunscreen and walked all the way to the back of Universal Studio to get into the Harry Potter area.
Unfortunately when we arrived, there was a 4 hour wait to get into that area of the park. No, it wasn't a line for a specific ride - it was a line to even get in!
Needless to say neither one of us was happy, so we got out of line hoping it wouldn't be as crowded later.
In the meantime we headed to Jurassic Park and rode a ton of water rides to keep cool.
Then played around in Toon Lagoon and shared a Dogwood (amusement park food is pricey!)
And Spiderman was a must!
After exhausting the rest of the park we headed back up to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, praying that we could get in! It was still crowded but there was no wait! We took a few pictures...
Then jumped in line for their big ride - Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. The wait wasn't bad because it went through Hogwarts Castle and there was so much to look at while we waited.
The ride itself was amazing, but getting on was a little bit tricky. There is this conveyor belt thing you have to practically run down and then hop onto the seats and quickly pull down the shoulder harness before it starts (your feet are dangling). It was super intense! Hubby ended up losing his flip-flops on the conveyour belt trying to get into our seats. Although the staff could not retrieve the flip-flop, they did give him a new pair from the gift store and let us cut to the front of the line to ride again! SCORE!
We tried to go into some of the Hogsmeade Stores, but there was a wait to even get in. The other rides weren't too exciting (we stood in line for a bit but were just too tired at that point) so we opted to just grab some butterbeer and window shop before heading back to the entrance.
Hubby had been eyeing our dinner location all day - Bubba Gumps! He just loves shrimp!
After a satisfying dinner, we dragged our tired and cranky butts back to the car to drive back to LBK. It was such an exhausting day, but I was so very glad we were able to go!
No comments:
Post a Comment