Universal Studios Day 2

Day 2 of Universal we headed to Harry Potter right away. We wanted to get on some rides before the lines got too long. These rides were well planned. You walk a long way through with lots of things to look at so waiting in line doesn't seem so bad. The details throughout are amazing. The top pictures is inside Gringotts Bank.

Hagrid's hut.

We had to try butterbeer. It was good. It pretty much tasted like cream soda with some sweet/buttery cream on top.

Butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks.

Universal Studios Day 1

Wednesday we went to Universal Studios.  The main reason we went there was for Harry Potter but of course we enjoyed everything else as well.

The Despicable  Me ride was really fun. 

I had to have a picture with my drive inn.

The Simpsons pictures were for my brother...

After hitting up all the rides on the way we finally got to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Here's the night bus. The shrunken head talked. 

The detail of Diagon Alley is amazing. I just wish everything for sale there wasn't so expensive!

We ate lunch that day in the Leaky Cauldron. Then did some more exploring and rides.

We did got other places besides Harry Potter there just were not many pictures. We knew our kids would want to see every Harry Potter detail we could capture.

By 5:00 our feet were really tired of walking we decided to go back to the hotel and get some dinner. January was a great time to go (although it was on the chilly side) because the lines weren't bad. 

Sea World

Admission to Sea World was included with our Discovery Cove pass so we hit up Sea World on Tuesday. It was once again much colder than I hopped it would be.

The shows were really fun and we enjoyed seeing the fish and animals.

We had to take pictures of sea turtles for Brooke.

It was cool watching the dolphins and fish but a little anti climatic after swimming with them the day before.

We ended our day by going on the big roller coasters. We were both a bit nervous at first. We had not been on roller coasters in years but they were so fun!

  

Discovery Cove

Monday we went to Discovery Cove. It was an amazing all inclusive day resort. All meals and snacks were included. 

We put on our wet-suits and then went to feed the birds. We wen't quite ready to get in the water since it was only 48 degrees outside! 

There were four aviaries with different kinds of birds we got to feed.

After the aviary we got ready for our dolphin swim.  It was still pretty cold outside but the water was warm. The dolphin pool was 79 degrees so it actually wasn't too bad. The dolphin we swam with was named Hutch. He was the class clown of the pod. We were able to give him commands, watch him do tricks and have him swim with us across the pool. It was so much fun!

Since we were already wet from the dolphin swim we decided to brave some colder water and swim in the reef. The water was about 73 degrees. We had wet suits so it wasn't too bad but as soon as we were out of the water we could not quit shivering. 

The reef was amazing! We swam with lots of different kinds of fish and sting rays. Some of them were 5-6 feet across. It was really hard to take pictures under water so we didn't end up with the best pictures.

After snorkeling a while we decided to get lunch. We changed into dry wet-suits so we wouldn't freeze! The food was really good. It was all you can eat and we ate until we were stuffed!

After lunch we went to the lazy river. This water felt great! It was 88 degrees so it felt like a warm bath. We floated through the aviary, past otters and marmosets. It was relaxing. 

We basked in the sun but the high temperature was only 57 degrees so this wasn't as relaxing as it looks.

I wanted to lay in the hammock but it was way too cold in the shade! 

We hit the reef one more time.

There was a section of glass with sharks behind it we swam past but we didn't get pictures.

 It was so fun but after a while we were just too cold!

After our second lunch we floated the lazy river some more then called it a day. 

It was such a fun day!