Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Orlando Fl

This summer we had the opportunity to travel to Orlando and visited Sea World, Disney's Blizzard Beach and Universal.

The first stop was Blizzard Beach which has a slide called Summit Plummet. 12 stories tall at 120 feet and reaches speeds of 50 to 60 miles per hour. Everyone did it and had a blast.

This was a big year because Hannah was tall enough to ride the big coasters. Her first was the Manta at Sea World. (http://www.ridetheflyingray.com/manta/) Your sit down and the track is above you. They they pull the seats up so that your back is against the track and you are hanging. Well we got the front row and it was all over after that. She is a coaster enthusiast. It was neat how we are at the point in life when we are able to all go on the big rides at the same time together.

The next stop was Universal. The opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (aka Harry Potter Land) was the weekend prior so we knew it would be packed. this was a benefit to our new found love of roller coasters, the rides that usually had really long waits were abandoned because everyone was at HP. When we finally worked our way over, it was wall to wall people.


We left for dinner returning later that evening and the crowds had thinned out. Hannah and I were able to get on the new interactive Harry Potter rind in the castle after a wait of a little over an hour, much better than the three hour wait earlier in the day.


We all rode both coasters of the Dragon Challenge and so I had Hannah stand in front of the entrance to take her picture. I couldn't have planned it and I could have waited all day and never gotten this picture. Both coasters came in at exactly the moment I snapped the picture.

The Choosing Hat talked to us as we went through the line reminding us of the ride rules.
The pool of memories.
Honey Dukes candy shop. Chocolate covered frogs were a big hit.

The wand store.