Trip Report Will it ever stop raining? Our June 2017 trip

Hi, all!! I've finally had a chance to start going through my photos and thought I would get started on my trip report! For those of you not familiar, here is my pre-trip report:
Adventure is out there...June 2017
If you don't want to read the PTR, here is a brief synopsis before I get started:
Who: Me (Amy), DH (Brian), DS Logan (14), DD Lily (12), and DS Owen (9)
When: June 2-17, 2017
Where: Universal Studios (Hard Rock Hotel), Disney (Art of Animation), and SeaWorld

For those of you who followed along with the live portion of my PTR, I apologize that some of the photos will be the same. I'm too lazy to go back and remember which ones I used!

I experienced one of the longest days of my life on Friday, June 2!! We left Dayton, Ohio before 5am.

Neither one of us drinks coffee, but we definitely needed some caffeine to start our morning! We stopped for the best Coke in the world!!

McDonald's!!
We had a little delay in Cincinnati because I-75 was closed both directions and we had to take a little detour.
We waved @LisaBelle and @21stamps and any other Cinci friends as we finally drove over the bridge and entered Kentucky!

We made sure to get past Lexington before morning rush hour, and stopped in Richmond for breakfast.

The kids had never had Chick fil A for breakfast, so we had to correct that!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Saturday, June 3
We decided to sleep in a little the first day since we knew we had two more days that we could enjoy the early entry perk of staying at Hard Rock. Brian and I were still not on great terms when we went to bed, so I didn't sleep well and was up by 7. He and I got up and ready first, letting the kids sleep until about 8.
I was thrilled when I noticed we could see this from our window:

We were all up and ready to go by about 9. We all grabbed a quick bite to eat in the room and took our motion sickness medicine. (Brian and I both have an issue with motion sickness, so we were sure to take meclizine each day we were at Universal. Both of the boys have issues in the car too, so the pediatrician prescribed Zofran for them since Owen is too young for meclizine.) Then we made our way out of the hotel and began our walk to the park.




We got about half way there when I double checked that everyone had taken their meds because I didn't want to have anyone's day ruined by nausea. Both boys just looked at me with the widest eyes! After a few choice words, we turned around and walked all the way back to the room for them to take some medication. It would be an understatement to say it was tense for a little while! When we hit the door to go back out to the pool, I took a few deep breaths and told everyone that we were going to forget what just happened and pretend that this was the first time we were leaving the hotel for the parks. That seemed to put everyone in a better mood.

 

[TheMouseFan]

I picked up taking pictures where we had previously stopped walking!













It was a beautiful walk, and I really enjoyed being that close to the parks!

 

[TheMouseFan]

We decided to start in Islands of Adventure because it was Gay Days at Universal Studios and I was worried about the crowd level (definitely shouldn't have been, but hindsight is always 20/20!!).

Everyone decided we wanted to ride Hulk first, so we made our way over there:






Lily was super excited to catch her first glimpse of Hogsmeade!





Owen said he really wanted to ride, but I could tell he was a little apprehensive! Luckily, he and everyone else ended up really enjoying it!
Side note: I really hated having to get a locker for almost every ride! It ate up a lot of time! And I LOVED the Express Pass!! Crowds didn't seem too bad, but the wait times sure did! I don't think I would ever do Universal again without them!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Lily was really chomping at the bit to get to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, so we headed toward Seuss Landing to make our way there.




We made a quick stop to ride The Cat in The Hat.

We were not impressed!

We ran into Thing 1 and Thing 2:

And the Grinch:

They just can't pass up a photo opportunity!!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Then we walked through The Lost Continent.




Unfortunately, we never made it back here to check it out:

 

[amjt660]

Then we walked through The Lost Continent.




Unfortunately, we never made it back here to check it out:

Well consider yourself lucky
Posiden fury straight up sucks!!
One of the worst attractions at universal or any other park
Amazing queue and building
Really really bad walk through show

Max

 

[amjt660]

Did you get to Mythos
Great restaurant and atmosphere

Max

 

[DisneyMorgan]

Every time I think of driving to WDW instead of flying, I quickly change my mind (it would be over 12 hours for us). Much easier flying! I'm sorry it was a stressful day/next morning

I'm excited to hear what you thought of Universal. We rode Hulk near the end of our day, and it did me in. I had the worst headache!!
I'm a big HP fan, so i'm right there with Lily! Ready for everything Harry Potter!! Can't wait to read more!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Well consider yourself lucky
Posiden fury straight up sucks!!
One of the worst attractions at universal or any other park
Amazing queue and building
Really really bad walk through show

Max

Glad we didn't bother!

Did you get to Mythos
Great restaurant and atmosphere

Max

Unfortunately, no we didn't. I looked at the menu online and didn't see anything that I thought the kids would enjoy. Hopefully next time!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Every time I think of driving to WDW instead of flying, I quickly change my mind (it would be over 12 hours for us). Much easier flying! I'm sorry it was a stressful day/next morning

I'm excited to hear what you thought of Universal. We rode Hulk near the end of our day, and it did me in. I had the worst headache!!
I'm a big HP fan, so i'm right there with Lily! Ready for everything Harry Potter!! Can't wait to read more!

Thanks for reading! Definitely do yourself a favor and always fly!!
Our first time on Hulk was very smooth and didn't bother me. The second time was really rough and bothered me. I had heard that it depends on which car you get if it is rough or smooth, and I truly believe that now!

 

[lostpro9het]

Side note: I really hated having to get a locker for almost every ride! It ate up a lot of time!

I agree! I think half of our pictures from IOA looked like this:

 

[12in12]

Your pictures look nice! I can imagine your frustration when you had to walk back to the room because the boys had forgotten their medicine. Luckily you were smart enough to let it go

 

[fractal]

I really think teenager's brains are wired to do the exact opposite of whatever you tell them to do.

Terrific photos!

 

[TheMouseFan]

I really think teenager's brains are wired to do the exact opposite of whatever you tell them to do.

Terrific photos!

I have to agree! And thanks!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Lily was sooo excited that we were almost to Hogsmeade!! We went with the understanding that we may not ride any of the attractions, depending on the wait times since we arrived after regular park opening and that we could return the next day for early entry.



We were all in awe! I thought Lily was going to faint she was so giddy!






We decided to skip this for now:

 

[TheMouseFan]

And there it was!!



The wait was only 15 minutes, which ended up just being as long as it took us to walk to the loading area!







The only problem with no wait was that it was hard to take pictures because the people behind wanted to keep moving, as did the kids! This is the only pic I took of the queue that turned out decent:

The kids and I loved it! I knew we were in trouble the second I caught sight of Brian! He was a lovely shade of green and had sweat pouring off of him! He immediately made for a bench outside of the shop at the exit.
The kids and I went to ride Flight of the Hippogriff while Brian tried to recover. Luckily, the meclizine helped a little and he recovered pretty quickly! (without the meds, he would have been miserable for the rest of the day!) Here are a few pics taken while in line:



They didn't allow any pics to be taken while on the ride.

 

[TheMouseFan]

Brian was feeling better by the time we found him again. He thought eating lunch would help him. A few pics on our way:













We decided to eat at Three Broomsticks.


We ordered fish and chips to share. They were delicious!! Brian and Logan got lemonade that they raved about, and Lily, Owen, and I got frozen butterbeer! I absolutely loved it! The other two said it was good, but didn't finish theirs, and Brian didn't like it at all.

 

[TheMouseFan]

After eating, Lily wanted to check out Honey Dukes.




Then a few more pics on the way to our next stop:

 

[fractal]

Great photos of HP World! Feeling bad for Brian but looks like he made a quick recovery.

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

I love all the HP pictures. I am a huge Harry Potter fan. I could see spending a lot of time in Honeydukes. Those candies look amazing!!!! I wouldn't want to eat them mind you, just stare at them.