Universal Studios Day

Day 4 of our trip was visiting Universal Studios in Los Angeles. Being big Harry Potter fans, we started with Harry Potter World (I don't remember what they actually call it, but that's what we called it). We went and did the Ollivander's wand choosing experience and Charlotte was chosen to participate. Fortunately, we were lucky enough to be at the beginning of the line when we had our turn, and I think that helped a lot. It was perfect because Charlotte is 11 years old this year, which is the same age Harry Potter got his wand. And she was REALLY hoping she would get chosen, so it was a dream come true for her!

Walking into the park.

Just inside the gates, Jack wanted a picture in front of this filming statue.

Going into Harry Potter World.

The wand chose her!

Of course, we had to buy the wand that chose her and then Alice picked out her own. Charlotte could have picked a different one, but she wanted the one that chose her.

Garrett's a big fan too. He bought himself a wand, robe and tie.

We rode both of the rides in Harry Potter world. First, we rode the castle ride. They did such an amazing job with so much to look at while you're waiting in line. And this time, the ride did not break down during our ride. Unfortunately, my stomach felt a little queasy afterwards. I just can't handle rides like I used to, and it makes me sad. Five years ago, most of us missed the Flight of the Hippogriff ride. It was a short little roller coaster but had a long line, since only one coaster can go at a time because it's so short. It was nice that they had misting fans in the line since it was outdoors.

Walking through the greenhouse as part of the castle line.

Inside the castle now.

Jack and Julie in front of the statue that leads to Dumbledore's office.

In the defense against the dark arts classroom, watching projections of the 3 main movie characters.

The sorting hat!

Outside the ride.

In line for the Hippogriff ride.

Hagrid's hut in the background.

After enjoying Harry Potter world, it was time to explore the rest of the park. We did The Simpson's ride, which I wasn't a fan of the show or the ride. The options they have for restaurants to eat at is limited and so is the seating. We went to Luigi's Pizza restaurant and had to wait a long time for the food and a big table to open up because we had a big group. Even the small tables were all full as well, but we finally got a table.

Then we headed over to ride Jurassic World. And yes, you WILL get wet! It wasn't as wet as the last time I rode it, and the wait time was much shorter. I think it was 45 minutes, compared to 2 hours the first time. It was a fun ride though! I almost didn't go on it.

Another really cool area was Nintendo World. Their ride was basically playing Mario Karts. It was about as long a wait as the Cars ride (80 min). Too long! But at least they had lots of cool things to look at again, like on the Harry Potter ride.

Bowser's room.

Finally about to get on the ride.

Afterwards, we raced across the park to go catch the Water World show. They only had a few time slots where you could watch it, and we were ready. It was a good show and nice to rest our feet. We were all really tired and ready to sit some more, so we finally went and did the Universal Studios tour ride. It was about an hour long, so it was nice. And of course, it was fun to learn things about the studios.

We wanted to go back to Harry Potter World afterwards to get a family picture in front of the castle and so the kids could look at souvenirs also. Alice had dropped her wand in a souvenir shop and the tip came out. She was so sad because that tip would allow her to use the wand in certain places to move things and now she wouldn't be able to do that. Fortunately, a manager in the gift shop saw that she was upset (crying) and asked if we needed help. I told him the story and he said because we had bought that wand on that day, that one time only she could go back to Olivander's to have it replaced. Yay! That was so cool that they allowed her to do that. She was much happier after that.

Outside the Hogwarts castle.

Trying out their wands at all of the spots that you could.

Getting a picture with the moving "Wanted" poster of Sirius Black.

On our way out. Curtis and Jack had already gone to the van.

Charlotte loves this movie. We haven't actually watched the new one that came out but she had to get a picture with Toothless on our way to the parking lot. It was another good day!

Disney California Adventure

The morning we went to California Adventure was much like the previous morning, except people were moving a little slower after getting worn out the day before. We arrived before opening time, but they let people in up to a certain point and then we had to wait. Well, it was the beginning of the day and our group was already tired of standing right at the get go. It wasn't so bad if we were actually walking somewhere. When you have to stand and wait, that's when it really bothers me. I also gave Jenna some of our moleskins for her feet because she really needed them. I'm so glad we bought extras.

Waiting for opening time.

Incredible Dad and Mom 

Our first official ride of the day was Soarin' Around the World. Poor Jenna had a very embarrassing moment when racing to get in line. She was trying to get past some people in line to join our group and she thought their daughter was her daughter, so she was trying to get her to move until we finally got her to realize that wasn't her child. Oops! 😆 While waiting in this line we decided to play the dice game, Bank, and had to use two phones. One for the game and one for "rolling" the dice. It sure helped pass the time we had to wait.

Alice rode on the front row with her cousins and aunt and uncle since it was all of their first time riding, but here's the rest of us together.

We pretty much got to ride all of the rides we really wanted to at California Adventure but sometimes did a little more walking (across the park) than we wanted. At least it's not as big as Disneyland.

The iconic Mickey Mouse head on the Ferris wheel.

Standing in front of the tower of the Guardians of the Galaxy ride.

While everyone else went on the wet ride, Charlotte and I waited for them.

Riding the Ferris wheel. We got one that moves while you go around. We tried not to move it on purpose though, like the boys did with theirs.

Walking through Radiator Springs.

Alice, Garrett, Lexi, Wesley

Ricky, (some lady), Curtis, and Jack

Charlotte, me, Jenna, Julie

We're all in the front row and some on the 2nd row back. This one goes straight up and down, like the Frog Hopper, but on a much bigger scale.

The Cars ride. Yes, it was fun, but really not worth the 1.5 hour wait.

In the evening most of us went back to the hotel to rest. Curtis and Jack stayed to ride Guardians of the Galaxy again. A few of the kids went back with me after resting (and swimming) to go watch the water light show at California Adventure. We got the same spot we got last time because neither time that we went did we know you needed to reserve a spot early in the day for the better seating/standing area on the pier. I tried to walk the girls around to see better and someone who worked there told me about it when we tried to get into that area. Oh well, it was still fun to watch. We just wish we would have had a better view. Any animations we saw were backwards to us.

Walking out at the end of the day around closing time. The girls found some souvenirs from the Guardians ride. Little Groot. Another fun day in the books!

Disneyland 2025

Tuesday morning on the 17th of June, I woke up at 5am so I would have time to shower and get dressed before the breakfast bar opened at 6:30. I woke everyone else up around 5:30. We wanted to get over to Disneyland as quickly as possible. Our hotel was close enough (about a 10 min walk) that we could walk to the Toy Story Parking Lot where they did a security check and then we loaded on buses to be dropped off at the Disneyland gates. Since we already did a security check, we did not have to do it again when we arrived there. This was the first time Ricky's family had ever been to Disney, except Jenna, who came when she was a kid. It was fun to do this with them!

Waiting to get through the ticket line.

Our plan was to get on Rise of the Resistance (Star Wars) first, but the line was ridiculously long because they were already having issues with the ride. So, we went to the other Star Wars ride instead, Smugglers' Run.

Immediately after Smuggler's Run, we rode Thunder Mountain Railroad, which is a rollercoaster. That one is always fun.

Alice and I rode Thunder Mountain together.

We bought the Lightning Lane Pass, which used to be called the Max Pass. It helped us get on some of the rides quicker. We could reserve a time to get on a ride and then we'd have 1 hour to get on the ride after it passed that time. Unfortunately, we could only reserve one ride at a time. For the fun of it, I decided to keep track of which rides we rode throughout the day: Smuggler's Run, Thunder Mountain, Adventure Land Treehouse (Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse), Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, Rise of the Resistance (finally!), Lunch break at Hungry Bear, Indiana Jones, Star Tours, Space Mountain, the Railroad train that goes around the whole park, Mickey's house, Chip and Dale's Gadget Coaster, Alice in Wonderland, and the Monorail. Even though the park closed at midnight, we ended up leaving the park around either 7:30 or 8:30pm because we were so tired and we knew we had another full day ahead of us the next day. Here are some more pictures from the day. Most of my pictures I posted to Facebook, so I won't post as many here.

Pirates of the Caribbean

We saw some friends from church while in line for the Haunted Mansion. Catalina Diaz and her granddaughter, Amiyah. We knew they would be there, but we didn't plan a meet up. It was so cool that we saw each other by coincidence.

Rise of the Resistance

Lunch at Hungry Bear

In line for the Indiana Jones ride.

Jack was so tired, that he lay down to take a nap while some of us went into Mickey's house. Others rested in the same area with him.

Inside Mickey's house.

They got to meet Mickey Mouse! I don't think we met him 5 years ago when we came.

Garrett and Alice riding Chip and Dale's coaster.

We had to ride this ride for Alice for obvious reasons.

Cousins

Finishing the Alice in Wonderland ride.

Riding the Monorail, the last ride of the day.

The kids loved this big wet ball that you can spin around.

Walking down Main Street heading to the exit.

On our way out.

It was such a fun day! However, I did learn that I needed to wear some mole skins on different parts of my feet to help keep from getting blisters, so we did buy some of those. They saved my feet throughout the week! When we got back to the hotel, some people went swimming, and we warmed up some microwaveable meals that we had bought the day before. They came in handy for not having to go get food somewhere at the end of the day when we're exhausted. Then we relaxed by watching TV. It was a great start to our trip!