Mia's Birthday Trip - Day 3

There are few reasons for me to get up before 6am, but getting ready to go to Universal Studios for early admission is most definitely one of them!  It was another beautiful day, and we could not wait to get back to Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, and Diagon Alley!

We had early admission to Universal Studios, so we headed straight over to Diagon Alley.  It's so cool!

We waited outside Ollivander's wand shop for about 20 minutes or so because getting a new wand was top of Mia's wish list.  We saw how Ollivander helps the wizards get matched with a wand which is pretty cool.  Then we began our search for the perfect wand for Mia.  We looked at just about every possible one before Mia decided that the one that looks like Fleur Delacour's is her best fit.

It was the right one!  She was able to use it to cast spells all over the park which is super fun.

Next up was another item on Mia's wish list: a new Gryffindor robe.  We found a great one which also has the perfect wand holding pocket inside of it so wizards can always have their wands at the ready.  After this we were ready to ride Escape from Gringott's which is an awesome 3D ride.

After all this fun, we knew exactly what we wanted: frozen butterbeer.  Mia exchanged some muggle money at Gringott's and then bought herself this treat.  We found a quiet little bench and enjoyed.

By now, Islands of Adventure had opened up so we started to head that way.  First up though was stopping in the phone booth to call up the Ministry of Magic.

Time to head to King's Cross station to find the Hogwarts Express on Platform 9 3/4.  When we asked the attendant where it was, she said we must be confused; there could be no such thing.

Thankfully we found it!

We were glad to make it to Hogsmeade!

Our first stop was to Honeyduke's.  Look at all this yummy candy!

We scoped out what we wanted to come back and purchase before leaving but we knew we needed to go ahead and get a chocolate frog.

What a beautiful site to see!

Now it was time to try some rides.  We started with Flight of the Hippogriff which walks right by Hagrid's Hut.  This coaster scared Mia several years ago when we went, but this time she acknowledged it was an easy one.

After that ride, we rode the Forbidden Journey which is inside the Hogwart's Castle.  Super cool.  Then we decided to give Hagrid' Motorbike Adventure a try.  It was is the most amazing roller coaster I've ever been on!  It goes so fast, has sharp twists and turns, goes backwards, and even has a drop in it.  Truly amazing!  We loved it and immediately rode it again.

By now, we were worn out!  We decided to return to Diagon Alley so we could have lunch at the Leaky Cauldron.

We took a little stroll down Knockturn Alley after lunch to get a taste of the Dark Arts.  We explored all over Diagon Alley and then decided to head back over to Hogsmeade to finish out our day.  We stopped in the Owl Post to buy a postcard pack.  We wrote one to Jackie Briggs to thank her for being an awesome travel agent and planning this trip; we wrote one to Ryan and Lily too because we missed being with them.  Then we decided to ride Hagrid's two more times because it's just so cool!

We were thinking we were ready to wrap up our day, so we decided to get some goodies to take home from Honeyduke's and then walk through the rest of Islands of Adventure.  This included Jurassic World and the Marvel comics area which was fun to see and window shop through.  Of course it also includes Suess Landing which I've always loved! 

We rode several of the rides here, including the classic Cat in the Hat, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue (where Mia got us wet!), and The High in the Sky Trolley.  Unfortunately the carosel was closed for renovation.

After all this, we realized there was about an hour left before the park closed which meant we had time to go back and ride Hagrid's again.  We thought that would be last our ride of the night, but as luck would have it, we got off the ride and were able to get right back in line before the closed admission for the night.  We were some of the last people to get to ride that evening!  We had to buy the souvenir picture to commemorate this awesome ride and how much we had.  

We were able to ride Hagrid's six times today which was so great.  I'm so glad Mia started loving roller coasters!  We had such a blast today.  We were closing down the park, so we made our way back to our car and decided to make a quick stop at McDonald's for a late dinner.  We finally made it back to our hotel, showered, and climbed into bed, so very happily exhausted.

Mia's Birthday Trip - Day 2

Our Monday started early as we caught the bus to Animal Kingdom at 6:45.  One of the perks of staying on Disney properties is early admission to the parks.  We were ready to take advantage!

We headed straight over to the Avatar area.  This was new since we last visited Animal Kingdom many years ago.  Mia has watched the movie and loves it.  She couldn't wait to see this in person, and it did not disappoint!  This area was beautiful and super cool.

We immediately jumped in line for Flight of Passage.  We had heard from several friends how amazing this ride was, and we also knew how long the line could get later in the day.  We only had to wait about 15 minutes which was fantastic.  The details here were amazing!

That ride was unreal.  You sit on a motorcycle type piece of equipment and put on your 3D goggles.  As the ride begins, it looks and feels like you are sitting on a banshee as it flies around Pandora.  You can even feel it breathe under you which is crazy.  This was definitely a top ride of the trip for us.

From there we went to ride the Na'vi River Journey which is a calm slow boat ride through Pandora.  It was a good one to go on.

One of the items Mia had saved up for was a banshee stuffed animal.  Unfortunately, they are totally sold out right now!  There has been a ton of shipping issues all around the world right now, and it seems even Disney is feeling that.  Mia was also excited to have her face painted like a banshee, but Disney wasn't doing that either as a covid protocol procedure.  What a bummer!  Mia was disappointed, but she recognized this was out of her hands, so she kept her chin up and we kept going.  Mia's ability to accept situations and keep going make me proud.  Instead, we found a really cool Na'vi shirt for Mia that she changed in to quickly.

After taking in all of Pandora (well, we didn't want to ride the water ride and be wet all day), we headed over to the Africa and Asia areas of Animal Kingdom where we loved Kilimanjaro Safaris and the walk through area to see animals.  We saw so many awesome animals!  They were all pretty active too as it was still fairly early and cool outside.

Soon it was time to stop for a little snack break.  Mickey ice cream sandwich for Mia and chocolate dipped Mickey ice cream for me.

We explored the park some too.

Saw a couple of fun little water parades; they aren't doing the big street parades right now to avoid having large crowds gather.

Mia has always been scared of roller coasters, ever since she was little.  She's always been willing to try them thinking "maybe this time, I'll like them."  She's always been a brave kid, so she decided to give Everest a try.  That's not a small coaster!  Thankfully the line wasn't long so she didn't have too much time to get nervous before we got on.  She absolutely loved it!  So much so that we rode it again!  We of course had to buy the souvenir picture and even a t-shirt to commemorate.

Soon we ate lunch and took a little break.  After that though we decided to head back over to Pandora so we could ride Flight of Passage again.  It's such a cool ride!  We took another little ice cream break because it was a fairly warm day and really, is a Mickey ice cream ever not a good idea?

After some more time in Pandora, it was the middle of the afternoon, and we were getting pretty tired.  We decided to head back to the hotel for a slower paced evening.  We stopped in the lobby and picked up a game of Clue, Disney Villains edition, and then found a nice little area to sit outside and play.  It's a fun game!

We decided to eat a little picnic in our room, so I picked up dinner from the quick serve restaurant in the lobby.  Then we decided to spend a little more time outside since it was such a pretty evening.  Mia was so excited about her new viperwolf from Pandora who she named Tie-Tie.  How cute is he?

We then found another nice spot outside to watch the sunset and play more Clue.  It was a beautiful evening.  Then we decided to take a little ride on the Skyliners so we would know more about those.  We just rode over to Hollywood Studios and then turned around to come back.  It's a neat transportation system.

It was getting late by this point, so we headed on back in to shower and head to bed.  We were pretty tired so we wanted to rest up to be ready for the next day.  We both slept really well that night!