Universal Trip: Day 3

We were up bright and early this morning (even with daylight savings time), and we were ready to check out the other park, Islands of Adventure! We had another beautiful morning to take the boat over to the park!

The most amazing part of this park was the other half of Harry Potter World, where we found the town of Hogsmead and the famous Hogwarts Castle! It was amazing!

We got right in line for the most popular ride in the parks, Hargrid's Motorbike ride. We didn't have to wait too long, but it was worth the wait (for some of us anyway... others might have been a little terrified of the crazy coaster, but I'm not naming any names)!

After we all recovered from Hagrid's ride, we headed in to tour the castle and ride the Forbidden Journey... It was an awesome 4D ride that we were a bit split on again... this time it was a bit much for Dad, so the girls stayed together and kept getting in line to go back for more! Walking through the castle was so much fun getting to see all of the details from the books we love and know so well!

Abby couldn't wait to go to the candy shop in Hogsmead, "Honeydukes", and it didn't disappoint! We loaded up on Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, cotton candy, chocolate wands and chocolate frogs!

Ben loved the "Flight of the Hippograph", which was a kid coaster that was pretty cool!

After the coasters, we headed to the Three Broomsticks for lunch and some more butterbeer!

After heading out of Harry Potter World, we stopped in Jurassic Park, and a few of us went on the Jurassic River ride... Mom found out it was a log flume ride into the water, so she covered up to not get wet... Can you find her in her black sweatshirt sitting next to Abby????

Leaving Jurassic Park, we found the superheros having a race in the Marvel area where Abby rode the big Hulk coaster with Mom and Dad, and everyone enjoyed the 4D Spiderman ride!

Mom was pretty scared of the big coaster, but it couldn't have been THAT bad, because they rode it twice in a row!

When we had exhausted the Islands of Adventure park, we hopped on the Hogwarts Express train that takes you between the two parks, so we could ride one more favorite in the Universal Resorts park before wrapping up the day.

Emily's request was to head straight back to the Escape from Gringott's ride!

After a super busy 7 hours in the parks today, we headed back to the hotel on the boat to get ready for dinner with Dancey-Dancey and Pop-Pop who came to the resort to visit with us! 

Abby REALLY wanted Mom to go on the two scary rides she didn't get to do with her and Dad last night, so they headed back to the park alone for a bit more fun before the day was over...

They happened to also see a Mardi Gras parade & a live country concert!

They rode the Revenge of the Mummy twice, even though Mom was so scared the first time...

... then they headed to the scariest ride in the park... The Rip Ride Rocket... Mom was absolutely terrified, but Abby was so proud of her for going through with it! She even "almost" had her hands up in the air!

We had such a fun night together and enjoyed our walk home from the park that night... our hotel was beautiful to see all lit up!

We could all barely move at the end of the days, and our Fit Bits told us why! We did a TON of walking, but no rest for the weary... tomorrow's another park day!!!!