New Years Day we left Savannah. Unfortunately, M had not been feeling well and decided to rent a car and drive home while we continued on the trip. It was sad to see him go and not get to finish our family vacation together:(
We dropped him off at the car rental place and then drove to Daytona Beach where we stayed for the night. We walked around and went out on the pier hoping there would be a place for C to rent a pole, but there was not! I put my toes in the ocean and it was freezing! There were people swimming in it and I have no idea how they did it! I couldn't even handle getting any more in the water than my toes! We found a place to eat dinner, Ocean Deck, which was actually really good and then the kids got ice cream before we went back to the room and watched a little bit of a movie before going to sleep!
Thursday 1/2
We woke up early in Daytona and ate breakfast at the hotel before driving to Universal. We arrived at Universal and checked into our hotel, The Royal Pacific, had our luggage stored since our room wasn't ready yet, got our tickets, walked the seven minute walk to the parks and were walking in about 10:15am! It was so crowded! This is my third time at Univeral in three years and this was by far the most crowded time of year I've been! Luckily, staying at the Royal Pacific allowed us to have Unlimited Express passes for our entire stay otherwise we never would have been able to ride as much as we did(which was much less than we've ridden the other two times I was there)! We ate an early lunch at The Leaky Cauldron and then rode Gringotts, mummy and Jimmy Fallon. By then we were getting tired and got some strawberry peanut butter ice cream for C and frozen butterbeers for me and S before getting on the train to Islands(30 minute delay! Ugh!). We then rode Journey and then split up and me and C rode King Kong and Spider Man while S rode Velocicoaster. We met up in City Walk at our dinner reservations at Antojiots and then walked back to the hotel since our room was now ready. We chilled in the room with plans to go back to the parks, but instead walked around the grounds to check everything out and then called it a night!
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| Sunrise in Daytona |
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| Made it!! |
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| Lunch at Leaky Cauldron |
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| Diagon Alley |
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| Gringotts |
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| It was this crowded everywhere we went |
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| Hogsmeade |
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| Antics in the hallway |
Friday 1/3
We woke up at 6am and figured out breakfast at the hotel and arrived at the park at 7:30am. I was SHOCKED at how far back in line we were and they didn't even open until a little before 8am! We went straight to Hagrids when we got in. Even with the kids in an all out sprint through the park and me finally finding them, plus a 30 minute delay we waited 1 hour and 40 minutes once we got in line. UGH! So crowded! We then rode Journey. S wanted to ride Hulk and me and C did not. So she rode that twice while C and I went back to the hotel and changed clothes in anticipation of riding the water rides after lunch. We met back up with S for lunch and then she waited while C and I rode Jurassic river and ripsaw rapids! We were so cold when we finished(it was about 65* at this point) so we headed back to the room where we changed and I took a nap. At about 3:30pm we went back to the parks using the boat this time. We rode Minions, Transformers and Mummy. It was then time for dinner at Margaritaville(one of C's favorite places to eat there). We came back into the park and did Men in Black and Gringotts. C and S got more ice cream, we took the train to Islands and I got the trifle at Three Broomsticks. We did Journey, got to see the lightshow and fireworks as we came out and then rode the Dr. Seuss trolly on our way out. We got back to our room at 9:30pm and lights were out by 11pm!
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| Freezing at about this time! |
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| Boat ride back to the parks |
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The Christmas decorations were still up at the
parks and it was so pretty! |
Saturday 1/4
We were up at 6am again! C and I grabbed breakfast and brought it back to the room. We arrived at the park at 7:20am and had a much better spot to get into the parks! When we got in, Hagrids was on a delay again and we decided we'd rather ride other rides than wait again! We rode Journey and then did Hippogriff THREE times because there wasn't a wait! We then took the train to Universal right at 9am when it opened. We rode Gringotts, Mummy twice because no wait, Fast and Furious and then S did Velocicoaster while C and I did Journey. We had lunch at Three Broomsticks(and had to wait even though we got there early!). S had a trifle and C a butterbeer! We went back to the room after lunch for a break. Me and S took at nap this time! We headed back to the parks at 3:30pm and rode Spider Man, took the train to Universal and rode Men in Black(C did it twice!) and then Mummy. We went to City Walk for dinner at NBC Grill and then went back into the parks. We wanted to ride Gringotts but it was on a delay so we just took the train to Islands where we rode Journey, Hippogriff(and timed it just right to see the fireworks while we rode!) and then S finally talked C into riding Velocicoaster while I sat and had a trifle at Three Broomsticks! Lights were out at about 11pm again!
We woke up this morning about 8am, got everything packed up and started the looooong drive home! We made pretty good time and pulled back in the driveway at 4pm!
It was such a fun trip and a great way to start 2025! Dampened only by the fact the M wasn't with us!
Just at Univeral alone, we walked 65,000 steps! We gonna need a vacation from our vacation!
