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!

 

[blreinsel]

You captured HP World beautifully! It really is a well done area. LOVE me some butter beer! So glad you loved it! Honey Dukes is such a fun little shop.

 

[TheMouseFan]

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

Thanks! I felt horrible too! He said he had to close his eyes right after the ride started. He recovered much more quickly than he did last year from Space Mountain!

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.

It was a very impressive and immersive experience! We absolutely loved It! My kids certainly wanted to try all of the candies!

 

[TheMouseFan]

You captured HP World beautifully! It really is a well done area. LOVE me some butter beer! So glad you loved it! Honey Dukes is such a fun little shop.

Thanks! I was just sad that I was the only one to like It! I couldn't help but have another one later in the trip!

 

[Zipadeelady]

I agree with Max @amjt660, Atlantis was very disappointing and I felt like we wasted so much time there.

Did you try the Pumpkin Juice? I thought it was delicious!!

 

[TheMouseFan]

I agree with Max @amjt660, Atlantis was very disappointing and I felt like we wasted so much time there.

Did you try the Pumpkin Juice? I thought it was delicious!!

Now I'm really glad we didn't make a point to do It! No, no pumpkin juice. Doesn't even sound good to me! Lily thought about getting it, but ended up with Gilly water instead because she wanted to keep the bottle.

 

[PrincessL]

I can totally relate to the long car ride ours was 17 1/2 hours. Is there ever a good time to go through ATL?!? We found that stopping in Gainsville and avoiding those last few hours prob saved our marriage this year

Sorry about all the rain!! I didn't follow your live TR but The forecast was not looking good. I hope you were able to make the best of it!! We left on June 3rd so we caught the front end of those storms.

Loving all your pics of HP. The Hardrock looks like a cool place to stay!

 

[Doc Disney]

I only love Disney Coke because I can only get it there! I get used to it, but the first one always makes me cringe! I can taste the Florida water that is used! I like how it tastes different depending on which resort or park you are in though!

For some reason Florida water doesn't bother me which is weird because I know it tastes bad haha
BTW loving the Universal pictures! Someday I will get to Universal I just can't ever seem to totally convince myself to go.

I watched an interesting documentary a while back about the intricate and patented hose system that McDonald's uses on their Coke machines to maximize the flavor of the drinks coming out of it. I've always thought their Coke tasted better than anyone else's so it was really neat to see that this was because of science and engineering, not personal bias

Oh really?! Thats super interesting and makes total sense haha

 

[Tiggerish]

Logan is so grown-up looking!

I love that your kids are into all the photo ops.

 

[DryerLintFan]

For some reason Florida water doesn't bother me which is weird because I know it tastes bad haha
BTW loving the Universal pictures! Someday I will get to Universal I just can't ever seem to totally convince myself to go.



Oh really?! Thats super interesting and makes total sense haha

http://www.businessinsider.com/why-mcdonalds-coke-tastes-better-2017-2

 

[TheMouseFan]

I can totally relate to the long car ride ours was 17 1/2 hours. Is there ever a good time to go through ATL?!? We found that stopping in Gainsville and avoiding those last few hours prob saved our marriage this year

Sorry about all the rain!! I didn't follow your live TR but The forecast was not looking good. I hope you were able to make the best of it!! We left on June 3rd so we caught the front end of those storms.

Loving all your pics of HP. The Hardrock looks like a cool place to stay!

I definitely think we would have done ok if the arrival at Hard Rock had been in daylight. The rain and dark just made it that much more confusing!
We only ended up with one day that was a total bust due to the rain.

 

[TheMouseFan]

For some reason Florida water doesn't bother me which is weird because I know it tastes bad haha
BTW loving the Universal pictures! Someday I will get to Universal I just can't ever seem to totally convince myself to go.

You really do need to go! I'm not sure Brian and I would have ever gone by ourselves, but the kids really wanted to try it. We will be back!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Logan is so grown-up looking!

I love that your kids are into all the photo ops.

I can't believe how fast they are all growing up, but especially Logan. He's going to be a freshman this year. I don't feel like we are old enough to have a 14 year old!!
Logan was definitely less into the photo ops this year! He still humored me most of the time, but he tried to get out of them if he thought he could!

 

[amjt660]

They didn't allow any pics to be taken while on the ride.[/QUOTE]

I guess I decided to not hear about that restriction......

#buckbeak
#itsmycameraandIcandropitifIwantto

Max

 

[sheriffwoody]

Joining in now! I hate that your car ride was so bad We don't mind our 12 hour drive (though Nashville, Chat and Atlanta are always really frustrating), but we also don't have kids in the mix to grate on our nerves . We have been flying the past few trips though just to save some time.

Excited to read more! Your pictures of Hogwarts made me want to listen to the soundtracks...so thanks for helping me choose my spotify tunes for the afternoon

 

[DisneyMorgan]

I love your pics of Harry Potter!! Both Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley are so well done! The queue's for the rides are totally amazing. And I agree, Butterbeer is delicious

I hate that Brian felt so bad after Forbidden Journey Hopefully the other Uni rides were ok on him, since most are screen based.

 

[TheMouseFan]

I guess I decided to not hear about that restriction......

View attachment 212223

#buckbeak
#itsmycameraandIcandropitifIwantto

Max[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I probably would have snuck some, but she saw me with my camera out and specifically said no pictures to me. I had to set a good example for the kids!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Joining in now! I hate that your car ride was so bad We don't mind our 12 hour drive (though Nashville, Chat and Atlanta are always really frustrating), but we also don't have kids in the mix to grate on our nerves . We have been flying the past few trips though just to save some time.

Excited to read more! Your pictures of Hogwarts made me want to listen to the soundtracks...so thanks for helping me choose my spotify tunes for the afternoon

Thanks for reading! Yeah, I think the ride would have been much better with just the two of us! And you're welcome!

 

[TheMouseFan]

I love your pics of Harry Potter!! Both Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley are so well done! The queue's for the rides are totally amazing. And I agree, Butterbeer is delicious

I hate that Brian felt so bad after Forbidden Journey Hopefully the other Uni rides were ok on him, since most are screen based.

Thanks! Luckily, he did fine on the others! We skipped The Simpsons ride because I had heard that one was bad about aggravating motion sickness, so don't know how he'd have done on it.

 

[Tuvalu]

Your (real) camera pictures were worth waiting for!

 

[LisaBelle]

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!

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.

I can't believe the wait time was only 15 minutes! That is awesome! On our visits the wait has always been at least 30 minutes which really isn't bad. My complaint is that they usually stack everyone up in the greenhouse area and then once you finally get into the air conditioned castle you are rushed through the queue. I agree about moving so quickly through the queue that it is hard to get any good pictures.

I felt just like Brian on our last trip. I realized just before we boarded that I'd forgotten my dramamine. I tried to convince myself that it was just mind over matter, but it's not . Now that I am older I cannot ride anything that spins and other "rough" rides are starting to do me in if I forget the motion sickness meds.

Frozen Butterbeer is sooooo delicious ! I didn't get to drink any on my last visit because I was still so queasy from the Hogwarts ride .