ORLANDO

Jett’s Wild Flight: VIP at Universal

By: Jett Lillie, 11/11/22 – 11/12/22

We arrived at Universal and ate breakfast as we met our VIP tour guide, Paul. We heard he was the best and turned out he was!

We first rode the “Harry Potter Escape from Gringott’s Bank” ride/simulator.

We escaped and were ready for the medium ride, Hagrid’s Motorbike roller coaster. Hagrid’s motor bike ride was AWESOME! If you go there, you HAVE to do it! (We ended up doing it 3 times!)

We got to see the Dragon in Diagon Alley breathe fire and then headed to ride the Hogwarts Express.

It was really cool how you got into the train station! We walked through bricks... MAGIC!

Next, we traveled to Jurassic Park and rode the more intense Velocicoaster which was just okay in my opinion. (My mom loved it!)

Then we rode a mummy coaster that was dark and spooky.

After that we did a Transformers 3D ride then ate lunch.

After that, we rode ET and the Dr. Suess’ ride and then Hulk’s roller coaster which has 7 or 8 upside down parts.

Then we beat the top score on the Men in Black Ride thanks to Paul! His personal score was 999,999 points! He broke it! So crazy!

Then we did Dr. Doom's Fear Fall (I did NOT like that one!) and then rode Spider man’s ride which was also 3D. (I did like that one!)

We also rode Hollywood rip ride rock it. I liked the music on this fast roller coaster!

Then we got our Harry Potter wands and did some interactive stuff with them. I was chosen by Ollivander in the show to have the wand choose me. That was cool! Jaycie chose hers. We had fun casting spells with them.

We also went into shops and we ended up riding the Hogwart’s Express train four times!

Here is a photo with Paul:

It was an awesome time! I loved Universal Studios and being one of their VIPs for a day!

Jaycie’s Bunny Hoppin’ News: DISNEY’S Hollywood Studios & Epcot

By: Jaycie Lillie, 11/13/22

Hello! I’m going to tell you about Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Epcot! Epcot was my favorite!

I liked going around the world but staying in Florida! [Ha ha!] At almost each country there was a “Kidcot.” The Kidcot station was where we could trade pins and then we could get a card that would tell us a bit about the Country. On the back of the card is a coloring page. Here is what the France card says:

“The Iron Lady –

Bonjour from Paris! Goofy is waiting in the square to meet the Iron Lady. I guess he doesn’t know that the Iron Lady is a nickname for the Eiffel Tower. She stands more than 1,000 feet tall!

Capitol City: Paris”

We also learned that there are 3 princesses from France! Can you guess which three? [*The answer will be at the very bottom of my blog.] We collected cards from United Kingdom, France, Japan, Germany, Italy, Norway, China, and Canada!

We ate dinner in Mexico at La Hacienda de San Angel. My favorite was China! The architecture was beautiful! I love lily pads and coy fish! I also love the beautifully painted fans!!!

We got a giant pretzel in Germany! My brother and I split it and It was really yummy!

We also ate some macaroons in France. [Now, keep in mind we didn’t actually go to all these countries. We just went to Disney’s version in Epcot.]

My favorite thing to do in Epcot was looking at all the shops and the different things they wore and made in each country. It’s crazy how different the buildings are too! When it was dark, there was an amazing show called Harmonious. It was all to Disney music of course! The show included water, fountains, lights, fireworks, & music. It felt short, but it lasted 10 minutes and it was super cool! Here’s a video:

We also met a guy with a Sony A7 iii camera – my DREAM camera! He said he loved it and it was definitely the way to go! [He also said the Cannon cameras were trash. Ha ha!] I think that Sony is just that much better! Okay, now back to Disney…

We also had visited Hollywood Studios. We got to take a picture with Minnie!

We did a lot of pin trading there, too! These are the ones I traded them:

And these are the ones I got out of the trade:

We also rode some rides. They were the simulator type rides. One was Star Wars, Mickey & Minnie, and Toy Story. I would suggest riding the Disney rides before Universal's rides because they are nothing compared to the Universal rides! Disney was a simulator of driving the Star Wars ship whereas the Universal rides were 4D with movie screens and a roller coaster in one!

I actually wasn’t supposed to video.. [Oops!] I didn’t know, though!] But when I realized I wasn’t supposed to, I stopped. [They did catch me videoing in the photo, but thankfully I didn’t get in trouble!]

We did a really cool ride at Disney Epcot, though. It was called Living with the Land. We learned about plants and water while riding a tram boat thing. It was so much fun!

We did have a Genie + pass, but mom. Had to book 1 ride ahead and we couldn’t book the next one until we checked in for the current one. It was a mess! Whereas at Universal we had a guide and he told us the story of everything and he got us to skip the lines. I didn’t mean this to be a Universal vs. Disney blog, but it kinda turned out that way! [Ha ha!] Both were very fun!

*ANSWER: Belle, Cinderella, and Aurora