Mia's Birthday Trip - Day 4

Wednesday morning arrived, and we took the Skyliner over to Hollywood Studios.  Jackie had given us a tip that the Star Wars area is super crowded first thing in the morning but then settles down later in the day.  We decided to start out in the Toy Story area.

Toy Story Mania is one of my favorite rides here so I was excited to get back to it.  I'll admit Mia won the shooting competition (twice!).  Then we decided to try Slinky Dog coaster which we'd heard was pretty fun, and we both enjoyed it.

Next up was Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway which was a cute little ride.

Finally, we couldn't wait any longer.  We headed over to Star Wars.  Mia is a huge fan of this series, so this was an amazing place to hear.  I've never been a big Star Wars person, but I'll say this was really cool.  The details here were really well done.

We decided to start out by actually having a slightly early lunch (like 11:15) at Docking Bay 7 to avoid some of the crowd.  Mia really enjoyed her Batuuan Beef and Crispy Topato Stir-Fry while I enjoyed my Fried Endorian Chicken Tip Yip.  My Batuuan Dasani water was pretty fun to see.

Now, it was time for some rides!  First up was Galaxy's Edge in the Millennium Falcon.  This was fun to walk through and see; both of us were then assigned to be engineers on our adventure.  I think we did pretty well.

After this we were able to go ride Rise of the Resistance which was really cool.  It's a whole experience and was a lot of fun.  We also walked to do the original Star Tours ride which was fun.

As we walked through the park, characters were out and about though you couldn't get too close.

I'm glad we couldn't get too close to this guy; watch out Mia!

We took a couple of snack breaks during the day.  The Batuuan Coke products were really cool, and we had to try to the Blue milk (and the green milk too even though it doesn't appear in the movies).

So many cool pieces all around this area of the park.

Finally, the big events of the day arrived.  The main reason Mia wanted to take this trip to Disney was for two experiences only at Hollywood Studios.  First up was making your own light saber.  You get a special admittance ticket and then a Jedi master tells you all about light sabers and how they are unique to each Jedi.

Mia picked the purple kyber crystal to go inside her Protection and Defense hilt set.

The Jedi master leads you through building your set.  Since he was standing right by Mia, he talked with, encouraged, and assisted her which gives a special memory.

Then comes the nerve wracking part of connecting your hilt with the saber part.

Finally, when the time is right the Jedi master gives the word and everyone can remove their saber and light them up.  I have to say, this was a really cool moment!

This was awesome for my Jedi!

After that awesome experience, we moved over to the other really cool one that Mia was excited about.  She got to build her own droid!

She picked a R2 model instead of a BB8 model, and she decided to go with a black and grey color scheme.  She carefully put it all together.

Once it's all together, you get to take it to a neat area outside where you can test it out and get to know it better.  This was really fun!  I'm so glad she had the opportunity (and saved up money) to do both of these experiences!

After playing around Stars Wars and enjoying it, we walked over to have dinner at the 50's Prime Time Cafe.  It was really delicious!  Mia had pot roast, and I had fried chicken.  We both enjoyed it and then we really liked dessert too: brownie a la mode for Mia and apple crisp for me.

We had a little bit more time before the park closed, so we headed back over to Star Wars land.  We wanted to soak up every minute!  We stood in line for Rise of the Resistance and just when it was time to board, there was technical difficulties so we had to leave.  We got to walk through the backstage exit though so it was kinda cool to see that.  They gave us all a fast past, so we headed over to Galaxy's Edge and walked right on.  This time, we were assigned to be pilots which absolutely made Mia's day.  Because I actually get a little motion sick on 3D rides like this, I switched places with someone else and was an engineer again.  Mia was on cloud nine getting to pilot our ship and she did great!

When that was over, we saw they were allowing people on Rise of the Resistance again, so we got back in line.  Again, we were in line when they closed so we were some of the last one to ride.  It's such a cool ride; I'm glad we got to experience it one last time.

When we exited the ride, the park was closed, so we had to head on back.  We rode the Skyliner back to the hotel which is just a peaceful way to end the evening.  Again, we showered and fell into bed happy and exhausted after another fantastic day.

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.