Florida

Date: October 24, 2018 – November 6, 2018
Location: Kissimmee, Florida

Over a year ago, we agreed on dates to go to Walt Disney World and Universal Studios with Brian’s family to celebrate his brother-in-law’s completion of his Associate’s degree. It also happened to be a special time of the year with his sister-in-law Cate’s 30th birthday, as well as Spencer’s birthday in October.

Taking the Panama Canal cruise was a great way to get to Florida. From Fort Lauderdale, Florida we took a bus to Kissimmee. In Kissimmee, we had a few days before Brian’s family arrived in Florida.

On Friday, we did laundry and went to Universal Studies.

Universal Studios – Friday

While I am very familiar with Walt Disney World, I had only been to Universal Studios once, and that was over 14 years ago. The day before Brian’s family arrived we went to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure to get familiar with the parks so we could make the most of our time when everyone else was there.

The Universal CityWalk pictured below leads to both of the theme parks.

Universal Studios has the Transformers 3D ride.

We saw the parade with SpongeBob SquarePants.

The Secret Life of Pets float.

In Islands of Adventure there is The Incredible Hulk Coaster.

The Hogwarts Castle.

Brian’s family arrived, including his 14-month-old nephew, Theo.

That night all 9 of us went to the Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort.

Brian’s sister, brother-in-law and nephew

The Spirit of Aloha Dinner is an all-you-can-eat meal where the food is brought to the table and served family style. The meal also includes unlimited soft drinks, beer and wine. The food was good and our waiter kept the drinks coming. For a meal and show at Disney it was good value.

After dinner, we did an Escape Room challenge at our resort. It was our first time doing one and we made it out with just over 4 minutes remaining. We wouldn’t have done it without the 2 women who joined our group and had done a few Escape Rooms in the past.

Universal Studios – Sunday

The next day we all went to Universal. Theo got to ride the Caro-Seuss-el.

In Diagon Alley, we saw the fire breathing dragon.

That night we saw the Hogwarts Castle light up.

Disney World

The first Disney park we went to was Animal Kingdom.

The Pandora area is really cool with waterfalls.

On the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail one of the gorillas was walking around.

During the Kilimanjaro Safaris we saw the cheetah.

Near Kali River Rapids we saw monkeys walking.

At Epcot, the International Food & Wine Festival was taking place.

The festival goes from August 30 – November 12, 2018. During that time there is a also concert series. Each artist plays for 2 or 3 nights in Epcot, three shows a day. Each show is about 30 minutes. While we were there we saw Hanson.

IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth fireworks show at Epcot.

We dressed up for Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween party at Magic Kingdom.

The headless horseman started off the parade.

Hollywood Studios is below, while entering Toy Story Land to ride Slinky Dog Dash first thing in the morning.

Taken by Alyssa’s sister, Kimberly

I saw one of the cast members draw Mickey and Minnie on the pavement with water and a broom.

My father and sister drove down to Florida and also went to Walt Disney World. After Brian’s family left, we had another 4 days in the parks with my family.

The night of October 31, 2018, the Halloween decorations were taken down and Christmas decorations started going up. Each day, more Christmas decorations are put up around the parks. We saw the Christmas tree at Magic Kingdom.

The last four nights we were in Florida we saw the Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom night shows. This is Animal Kingdom’s Rivers of Light show.

At Epcot’s International Food & Wine Festival there were some performers outside the countries. This guy was performing outside France.

We also saw Boyz II Men perform. There was a much larger crowd for Boyz II Men than Hanson.

On the last night we were at Walt Disney World the ice lights were on the castle.

We enjoyed seeing our families and had a great time at Universal Studios and Walt Disney World.