I love traveling as much as I love reading. My two favorite hobbies. The last time I was on an airplane was summer of 2007 before I had any children. Marti and I went to visit our sister Alyn in Georgia for the 7th Harry Potter book premier, she was pregnant with her 3rd kid. To say I'd missed traveling is an understatement.
Alyn would live in Diagon Alley inside Universal Studios if she could. She can't justify going with her whole family as often as she would like so I told her we should plan a girls trip there. She wanted another Harry Potter fix and I wanted to go anywhere and I hadn't been out to visit her in almost 10 years. We decided girls trips in between her AZ trips every other year would be ideal.
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| I got the window seat for my first flight in almost a decade. View of Orlando, tons of water! |
I thought the more the merrier so I got Marti (who gets to travel lots and just had a birthday) and mom who is finally retired to go too. We missed Kori, who had to say no since she just went on an England anniversary trip. Then Alyn had her older daughters Madi and Lia play hooky since she was driving and they could share the hide-a-bed. It was fun to get to spend time with my 2 oldest nieces. I got to know them better since they were born before I had my own kids. They are so grown up now at 16 and 13.
Alyn had done a ton of research when the crowd levels would be lowest. We decided to just to Universal instead of trying to do Disney World as well (I'd done Disney World in high school and I would feel guilty going without my kids). She'd also checked for ride closures before we booked our flights and the hotel suite. Then here's some snippits from the group me chat that made me chuckle-
Alyn Hancock
Alyn Hancock
Guest services just phoned and gave me a free upgrade for a 4th day in the park, so we can ride that ride before it closes... for $20 parking, granted. And the park is only open until 6 that night. So, if your flight is on time, 4:30, plus luggage? Plus 20 min drive, as long as we can get in the line before 6, we should get to ride that castle ride... maybe?
Alyn Hancock
Alyn Hancock
Alyn Hancock
Erin Whitmer
This just got serious 
Alyn Hancock
I packed super light. My bag was about half the size of a regular carry-on. There was lots of pressure for our flight to be on time. Miles and Matt dropped us off then Matt took 3 days off to stay home and handle all the kids' stuff.
Our darn flight was delayed an hour and a half so we didn't get to do the castle ride at all.
First view of Diagon Ally. I loved seeing it at night for the first time and the park is much less busy the last hour of the day. It feels more magical. The ideal way to see it the first time! Also all my pictures are blurry phone pictures before I got my new Pixel with the nice camera.
We managed to ride Gringott's the first night.
Marti captioned this picture- Erin, after the Gringotts ride: "I loved it! I loved it so much!"
Number 12 Grimmald Place on the muggle side of the London side of the park
Cool steam punk theme restaurant called the Chocolate Emporium we ate at the first night. The crepes were my favorite thing.
Awesome bathtub in the master suite. We should have taken another picture after we had our swim suits on and we were all sitting in there together doing Harry Potter trivia. Mom was impressed/horrified at the fact that none of us missed any questions. Yes we are super fans.
The water in Orlando smelled gross to me but I'm sure you get used to it.
Alyn got the suite through a timeshare connection her mother-in-law has. It was awesome. Marti and I had our own room with a queen bed and small couch with a bathroom in the same hallway. Then a full kitchen, dining table for 6, living room with hide-a-bed and couch and screen balcony (very Southern) and mom and Alyn shared the master suite with the king bed and jacuzzi tub. It was awesome, and I think only $100 for me for the 4 nights we stayed.
Girls trip! Stayed tuned for the other days!
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