Schoolies Day 15 & 16

Ok so Day 15 is a write-off.  8 hours flying from London to New York, 5 hour layover at JFK and then 2 hours to Orlando.  Pretty much a day wasted by the time we Ubered to our hotel and collapsed exhausted in the room.

Best part of today is that we caught up with Brendon, who survived the flight from BNE to LA and even managed to make his connecting flight to Orlando and checked into the hotel ahead of us.  It was so good to see him and I think with two weeks of knocking around the house alone, he was pretty happy to see us too.

But Day 16, day 16 is another thing whatsoever.  Orlando for us is about theme parks this holiday, specifically the Universal Studio theme parks.  We have tickets to all three parks for the four days we are here and we started the day with early entry at 8.45am.

Now if you’re not familiar with Universal Studios, let me tell you the big draw here - it’s a little thing called the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  At the Universal Studios Park, you enter Diagon Alley direct off the streets of London.  Every store you could imagine from the books/movies is there. You can buy wands, gowns, owls - just about anything from the HP universe.

We started the morning at the Leaky Cauldron for a wizard’s breakfast - pancakes for the boys and a full English breakfast for me.  The attention to detail in this park is amazing.  You’ll see in the pics that they do not leave out anything.  While waiting in line for rides, you are still entertained by scenes from the movies, sets, props - it really does feel, dare I say it, magic!

It’s not just HP theme that they do this for though - it is the same across the park.  And shows, so many shows throughout the day to entertain and delight.  We watched an audition for Fear Factor Live, a Blues Brothers tribute, musicians throughout the park and the friendliest, happiest staff to make your day even better.

But wait, when you’ve had your folks of Diagon Alley, jump on the Hogwarts Express and travel to the Islands of Adventure where you are magically taken to Hogsmeade and Hogwarts!  Sooooo much Harry Potter overload!

We spent 10 hours at Universal.  We could easily have stayed longer but we were exhausted - best to save our strength for the next two days.

Tomorrow we have a break from Universal studios and explore a bit more of this gorgeous state.