Slice of Life: Trip to Disney World & Universal Studios Part 2

Welcome to part two of my Disney & Universal Studios Florida vacation that I took in late May! If you haven’t already seen my first post you can check it out here.

We spent our third day of park going to the fabulous Magic Kingdom!

We traveled by ferry and got to the park as soon as it opened for the day! As with all of the other parks we visited, the first few hours were spent going on all of the popular attractions such as Space Mountain (a bit scarier than I remembered), Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and the Mad Hatter Tea Party (the teacups).

I was amazed at all of the new additions to the park since it had been 14 years since I had last visited Disney. Magic Kingdom is an especially large park, so we were definitely kept on our feet for the entirety of the day. I really enjoyed the new musical Little Mermaid ride as well as Belle’s Enchanted Tales. I think myself and the rest of the crew were just as excited as the kids in that interactive experience. I was trying hard to keep my cool and not spazz out because Belle is my favorite princess. Who doesn’t love a princess that adores reading and all things bookish?

We ended the day with the amazing Electrical Parade that lit up Main Street and then we headed back to the resort afterwards in an attempt to get a bit of shut-eye before tomorrow. We ended up spending 13 hours total at the park!

Our last day at Disney was spent at my all-time favorite park, Epcot! We started our day at on the technology/futuristic-style part of the park by riding the attraction Mission: Space, in which we were trapped in the small space for 20 minutes as we waited for the ride to start due to technical difficulties. I’m not claustrophobic, but it was still pretty bad waiting that long. After that we headed to Test Track, and then the fly-high ride Soarin’.

After that we headed to World Showcase, the best part of World Showcase, hands down! We started off in Canada and traveled through the UK area, in which I had to stop myself from buying hoards of Doctor Who merchandise and tons of Twinings tea.

Afterwards we hit up France and dined on some delicious ice cream that tasted way different from  what I expected to be. It’s definitely less sweeter and a bit lighter than American ice cream. Throughout the rest of the day we spent time in the entire showcase. I spent two hours in Japan trying not to buy all of the anime and Ghibli merchandise they sold. I also got to use my language skills by chatting with the sales associates in the store.

I also bought caramels in Germany, watched an amazing flag show in Italy, dined in China, and shopped in a lot of places! We ended the day and Disney portion of our trip with an amazing fireworks show over the water.

Day five, the final park-going day,  was spent hopping back and forth between the parks of Universal Studios. But the main reason we were there was because of the Harry Potter Attraction!

We first traveled to Hogsmeade and ran straight toward the attractions. The first ride of the day was Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. We swept through the corridors of Hogwarts and notable places such the Forbidden Forest. I already thought dementors were scary enough so I was not too thrilled at having them jump up in my face (I screamed so loud!). I also had to shut my eyes for the spider part of the ride. I couldn’t deal with life-like, gigantor spiders!!! We also took a cruise on the Flight of the Hippogriff and then headed to the shops.

I was so sad that I couldn’t buy a chocolate frog, since it was so blazing hot outside. Luckily there was a Universal store in the Orlando airport so I got to take one home after all. It was cool to see all of the shops from the books and movies re-created in such detail. It was as if the wizarding world was real!

After going to Platform 9 3/4 we caught the Hogwarts Express to Diagon Alley. We first explored King’s station where we got to chat with the driver & Ernie of the Night Bus and then made our way into the alley for lunch. Our dining choice? The Leaky Cauldron, where I had some delicious fish & chips paired with the way too delicious Butterbeer.

After popping in and out of shops, we headed to the roller coaster at Gringott’s which was pretty cool since it was part roller coaster/3-D experience! We then continued to explore the streets of Diagon Alley and went into the shady Knockturn Alley. After we got our fill of Harry Potter we sought out to explore the rest of the park. I was thoroughly impressed with this part of Universal and I hope they expand more in the future!

We spent the rest of the day going on rides, snacking on ice cream, and shopping (even though I was running out of money) I rode on the Mummy roller coaster which was way more intense than I expected it to be. It went so fast and plus it setup in the dark. Though I was freaking out because I was absolutely terrified (I can only handle so many roller coasters), I would definitely ride it again! And the rest of the day we continued to explore the park.

All in all it was a fantastic trip with some great friends and I cannot wait to go back and experience both parks again!

I hope you enjoyed reading about my experiences at Disney and Universal! See you again for another “Slice of Life” post very soon. 🙂

*All pictures were taken by me with my Nikon camera and Android phone

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