Universal Fun

Today was great at Universal Studios and Island Adventures and it was not without its chain of mishaps but before I get to that exciting story...

We had another wonderful morning at Give Kids The World.  We headed down to breakfast and a few of the same volunteers were there from the night before.  The man was really nice during dinner and gave us some great tips for the best rides.  This morning when he saw us walk in, he came over to see if we had any questions about the day's activities.  I asked him if he volunteered everyday here and he said, "No, just everyday this week."  He went on to explain that he is a Pastor at a church in Mobile,
Alabama and he brought 15 of his youth from his congregation down here to volunteer for the week in honor of his son.  He and his wife had one child who passed away at age 4, just last year.  He talked about how much his little boy loved GKTW and Disney World.  Whenever he asked him where he wanted to go, it was always, Give Kids The World!  Now, the father plans to come back here every year to honor his son.  He invited us to do the same.  He said the cool thing about being at GKTW is that you can come back anytime to visit. ANYTIME!  Tomorrow, I am going to see if I can get a picture of him and his wife and some of their youth.  There are so many inspiring stories.

After breakfast, we took Sam's star to the Castle of Miracles for the Star Fairy to place.

Stars cover the Castle of Miracles!  They had to build on a tower to accommodate more stars.  Before we leave, they will give us a map, showing us where in the galaxy Sam's star is! 

 We didn't get to Universal until about 10:30.  Not only did we have a 'Fast Pass' but we had our own escort for each ride!  I couldn't believe it.  We felt horrible being taken to the front of every single line and given the best seat on the ride.  It was crazy!  I went on just about everything at Universal.  They have the coolest 4D rides.  Some of them get pretty wild but I was brave.

So, are you ready for this story.  If you know us, you have to know by now that we seem to attract weird events like Hurricane Sandy during Spencer's wish so, Sam's wish was not without something crazy today!!  I'm talking eerie and crazy!

Things were going great until we got to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Island Adventures.  It was a ride that was highly recommended and the line was huge.  People had a 90 minute wait.  Of course, we got the front of the line, boarded our cart of just the 4 of us.  The ride takes off and it's pretty cool.  It's a 4 D ride so not only are you moving and spinning fast but there is 3D movie playing right in front of you and then smoke and splashes of water along with other physical effects.  We were flying and dropping through these towers and caverns and at one point we were tilted sideways and laying practically upside down!  At that very moment...the ride BROKE!!! No joke!  We came to a halt upside down and the power shut down.  It was nearly pitch black.  We were at this part when these enormous, hairy spiders had just been flung in our faces.  Those too were suspended right in our faces and stuck there!

I really wanted to start screaming!  Like really start screaming.  Black, spiders, cold, damp, dead silent except for the four of us and upside down?  Ugh!!  I was hanging the lowest in the cart. What's worse, is the safety bars cover each side of you so we couldn't see each other.  The only thing we could see of each other was our feet.    Being that I am the mom and the one that has to set the example of reason and composure, I stayed as still and as quiet as I could.  Inside, I could feel the panic building and I wanted to rip myself out of that seat and just hasten my death!  Good thing I didn't do that, it might have been a hasty thought.  Anyways, we weren't just stuck in there for a minute or two...nope, 15 minutes!!

When we finally got off the ride, I was feeling so dizzy and kind of sick.  They told us to get back in the cart for a re-ride!  I kindly backed out but the kids wanted to go so they got back on.  Low and behold, it happened again to them!  Twice!! The workers felt bad but I didn't care, I was just glad to be moving on.

From there the boys went to a roller coaster that was also in Harry Potter and just as they got in their seats, it died too!

You would think our bad luck ended at Harry Potter but unfortunately, it happened again in Dr. Seuss land.
The four of us were on a 4D Cat n The Hat ride and it died in the middle.  This time, we were upright and there was plenty of light when it stopped.  Again, we were stranded for 20 minutes!  Some guy kept coming over the intercom, "Please do not panic.  Please do not panic."  

Is it weird that we kept breaking the rides?  Shelbie said we have so much energy that we interfere with the electrical circuitry.  I'm not sure what it is...It took me a good hour to recover from the Harry Potter ride.  Even if we hadn't of been upside down, it still would have been too much for me.

Sam loved the day!  He was on cloud 9 all day.  Here are few pictures from today's fun.

Here we are at Universal.  So much fun!  Glad I brought a hat and skirts, kept things really cool.  

It was like being in the coolest little town ever!

The HULK roller coaster.  The first roller coaster of the day.  As you can see, I sat this one out. 

The heat was manageable today.  It was about 95 degrees but no one was suffering too much.  I had ordered a wheelchair for Shelbie several weeks ago and I am so glad I did.  She could hardly get through the airport when we had to make our connecting flight and the walking we did today was far more than any day in New York for Spencer's wish.  The wheelchair eliminated so much pain for her.

Sam's knee was giving him some problems in the afternoon but no one got sick today!  Probably because we hardly ate all day.  No one was hungry, just thirsty so all we had was lemonade and water.

For dinner we went to the 2nd largest McDonalds in the world.  It was chaotic but the cool part was that they had pizza and bistro sandwiches along with a huge ice cream bar and the largest Playland ever!  They even had two lanes for bowling.

Tomorrow we hit up Sea World and Aquatica!!  They have a dolphin plunge ride where you fly down this waterslide and into the dolphin tank!  Sam is so excited for Sea World!