As I have mentioned multiple times, we made a Universal trip and it was a perfect trip! First, we stayed on their property, which provided us with Express passes, water taxis, early entry to the parks and a shortish (depending on who you asked in our family) walk to the parks & the City Walk. And, because I am very self aware, we added the meal plans. I knew that having to pay $9 for a coke every hour would ruin the trip for me, so paying for the meal plan early and then managing every stop to get the most value out of it was totally in my skill set.
We have literally been talking about this trip forever-we would look up pictures, plan our rides, talk about the airplane ride, plan our sleeping arrangements in the hotel...all of it. I think the anticipation was almost as much fun as the actual trip.
We left Knoxville around 4am & drove to Nashville. Well Brandon drove & we all slept, but you probably already gathered that fact. The boys were ecstatic about riding on an airplane!
Max even busted out his wedding shirt AND pants for the occasion! We flew Southwest & they do not have assigned seating but we, of course, managed to snag window seats for both boys both ways.
We looked so fresh & clean prior to the start of our journey.
Also, those people posing behind us were the first on our journey in the matching shirts. Not only were we the only people who did not go to Disney, but we were the only ones not in matching shirts. I mean, EVERYONE was in matching shirts. It is like a cult industry.
Our travel days were both reeeeaaaalllyy long and we were all tired and hangry. This picture captured me in my happiest of places-just information hoarding. I had the "Unofficial Guide to Universal" book memorized....along with the park maps and meal plan guide. If you need to know which food stands take the quick meal vs. the full meal at Islands of Adventure, I am your girl.
I need to clarify that we were 100% parenting with a change of scenery. We spent SO much time dealing with the normal parenting fun and this moment of coloring was the only one that actually involved anyone sitting.
Riding the shuttle to the hotel! It looks exciting, but everyone actually fell asleep.
Riding the water taxi to eat lunch/dinner....we were STARVING!
MEAL PLAN FOR THE WIN!
We decided that Max is actually a minion disguised as a Max.
Our hotel had such an awesome pool set up that ducks made frequent visits.
They loved the sand the most.
Clearly, I did not lighten this one.
Just lounging in the hotel room.
Our first official day at the parks proved to be AWESOME! Thanks to our Express passes, we did not wait longer than 10 minutes for any of the rides!
Minion Mayhem was actually hilarious.
Simpsons land!
I think this is us waiting in line for The Simpsons. Of the areas, it was for sure one of the cutest.
Brandon felt bad for Max because we spent so much time with Harry, so he let him win a giant minion that fit really well in our suitcase.
Jurassic Park was another really interactive area. The details were super cute and there was a lot for the kids to do, including this net thing.
This giant net thing had at least 24 exits, so that was not difficult at all when I was trying to keep up with Max.
His favorite part was the water area.
We rode the Jurassic Park ride twice and Max actually cried both times. The first time he thought the the giant T-Rex at the end was going to eat us and the second time he was genuinely scared of the drop. Meanwhile, it was probably one of my favorite rides.
Seussland might be the absolute favorite (after Harry, of course) because it is seriously adorable.
We rode the Dr. Seuss train and it was actually my favorite ride.
So many selfies.
I mean, it was so cute.
These boys rode ALL of the rides that Anderson was tall enough to ride, including the water ones where they ended up being soaked.
But, he was still not too old for the Dr. Seuss area.
After the first night, we were exhausted and just did not have it in us to walk back to the City Walk to eat & the hotel food was crazy expensive, which also would not work. So, I used our meal plan to get a bunch of food to bring back to our hotel. It was sort of amazing.
Also...Max does not actually eat real sandwiches of any kind so I got him a BLT minus the L/T, so he ate bread and bacon.
I went to the hotel gift shop one night and bought ice cream for the boys but by the time I got back upstairs Max was asleep so Brandon got to enjoy a Sponge Bob popsicle.
More fun at Universal-these are all out of order.
This was probably Max's favorite part of the trip-you can suck up the balls in the vacuum thing and shoot them out at people and there all these climbing things AND it was all enclosed!! He was also half dressed from the water park part. We keep it classy wherever we go.
I mean, heaven.
Brandon even got in on the fun.
Ignore my eyebrows.
Mr. Squarepants, himself!
His pineapple under the sea!
Lots of entertainment time including high quality souvenirs.
Brandon will be the reason that our kids have positive memories because he lets them do things like get fake tatoos at theme parks.
Poor Max walked miles like a trooper. I mean, like a 4 year old trooper because there were a lot of back rides and BEGGING him to keep up with us. We sent Brandon & Anderson back early and took our time walking back, posing with all of the fake animals.
We ended our trip with Margaritaville for dinner. Our meal plan worked there, the margaritas were delicious & the boys loved the volcano.
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