travel Archives - Busy Moms Helper

My First Harry Potter World Experience

April 10, 2019 by Danielle 4 Comments

I participated in Family Forward 2015, resulting in extra experiences and discounts. See more info here.

I freely admit that I’m a HUGE fan of Harry Potter – and my girl is even more so! She was in the middle of the series when we had our First Harry Potter World Experience in Orlando, so it was a really magical experience. Literally! (originally shared February 2016)

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Since there’s so much to tell about the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, I’m breaking it up into a few posts – this one I’ll share our thoughts on the atmosphere, rides and just the overall experience. Now there’s TWO separate areas for Harry Potter world – Diagon Alley in Universal Studios and then in Universal’s Islands of Adventure you have Hogsmeade. Make sure you have the park-hopper ticket so you can go between the two. The easiest way is on the Hogwarts Express, or you can just exit one park and go in the normal entrance of the other – but it’s quite a bit more walking as the Harry Potter stuff is near the back of both parks.

The Hogwarts Express was a fun experience – you get put into your own private train compartment (the 8 of us fit perfectly fine). Watch out the window and you can see some favorite characters from the show like Hagrid, the Weasley twins, even Hedwig! You HAVE to try the train both directions because each is completely different. Heads up – on the way from Diagon Alley to Hogsmeade there’s a little dark moment with a ‘Dimentor’ (don’t worry, it’s just the screen and lights, not like a costumed person) that may scare little kids. Going the opposite way, those frightened of spiders may get a little ‘eeky’ moment, but again it’s just the screen. Our kids did fine after the first time, when they knew what to expect and just closed their eyes at that part. The train was one of their favorite things after that!

Be prepared and nab your Free Printable Universal Studios Florida Height Requirements here!

Diagon Alley at Universal Studios Florida

Right before you enter Diagon Alley from the Universal Park, you’ll see the Knight Bus – don’t forget to talk to the shrunken head and take some photos!

Head over to the famous ‘moving brick’ wall – the bricks don’t actually move, of course, but listen for the sound and your kids will be CERTAIN they can see them! Once through, there’s the path with plenty of shops and fun on both sides – and straight ahead is Gringotts bank, with the famous 60-ft Ukrainian Ironbelly dragon on top. He roars loudly and breathes fire every 10 minutes. You’ll hear a light rumble from him right before, so you have time to have your kids cover their ears if needed.

I LOVED the buildings and how well they did at making you truly feel like you were in Diagon Alley, even with all the ‘muggles’ around! A few stores down from the bank is the Gringotts Money Exchange – you can go in and talk to the head goblin, and even exchange your muggle money for some Gringotts Bank Notes (useable at Universal/Islands of Adventure as well as the Harry Potter lands – or keep as a souvenir). The kids thoughts this was AMAZING getting to use ‘wizard money’ to make some purchases.

Back by the Money Exchange is a out-of-the-way area which is less crowded than the main street – and has a lot of fun things to see such as a Mermaid well, The Hopping Pot (different beer brews, all FOUR varieties of Butter Beer, as well as some snacks and other drinks and Eternelle’s Elixers. The Elixer place is neat because you can buy different ‘potions’ (flavorings) to mix into your water for a fun little drink.

Both parks have PLENTY of photo opportunities – from a Hogwarts Express in Hogsmeade to a ton of fun window displays – try the Puking Pastilles at the Weasley’s joke shop in Diagon Alley. Check out the monster book or magical creatures at the pet shop, too!

I thought the Escape from Gringotts ride was remarkable – a 3-D, roller-coaster type ride where you need to get away from Voldemort, guards and more!

And yes, the top hat at Weasley’s store works just great – it’s right inside the brick entrance to Diagon Alley, and the Leaky Cauldron restaurant is right across from that. So much to do!

Rides in Diagon Alley: Escape from Gringotts, The Hogwarts Express

Where to eat in Diagon Alley: Leaky Cauldron, Florean Fortescue’s Ice-Cream Parlour

Shops at Diagon Alley: Ollivanders, Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes, Borgin & Burkes, Magical Menagerie, Madam Malkin’s Robes for all Occasions, Wiseacre’s Wizarding Equipment, Quality Quidditch Supplies

Hogsmead at Universal’s Islands of Adventure

Hogwarts castle is definitely a centerpiece of Hogsmeade – huge, beautiful and the detail is incredible! Inside is the Forbidden Journey ride (this was amazing – feet hanging in the air as you ‘fly’ through a Quidditch match, escape a dragon and brave the forbidden forest – warning if you get motion sickness easily!) – but you get to walk though the castle rooms on your way to the ride entrance! The pictures move and talk, there’s fun wizard newspapers, say hi to The Fat Lady and the Sorting Hat, plus hear some words from Dumbledore in his office.

The castle looks even more beautiful at night – and the rooftops were ‘snow-covered’, making the whole experience as real as possible! I seriously couldn’t get over the amount of detail that went into the whole village!

The Dragon Challenge was fun – a roller coaster where you’re almost ‘racing’ the other coaster! Red or blue – which do you pick? My kiddos absolute FAVORITE ride of the entire vacation was Flight of the Hippogriff – a kid-friendly roller coaster that was decently fun for the adults (which is good since they asked us to go on it dozens of times) but a real non-scary thrill for the younger ones! Don’t forget to bow to Buckbeak!

Rides at Hogsmeade: The Forbidden Journey, Dragon Challenge, Flight of the Hippogriff, The Hogwarts Express

Where to eat at Hogsmeade: Three Broomsticks

Shops at Hogsmeade: Dervish & Banges, Filch’s Emporium of Confiscated Goods, Honeydukes, Ollivanders

We only had a few days for all of Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure AND the Harry Potter stuff, so it was a bit rushed. I wish I had a whole day to truly look around into each thing – perhaps next time!

Coming Soon: Food at Harry Potter World, Great stuff for your visit to Harry Potter World

Book your Universal & Harry Potter World Vacation Now – use promo code: BusyMomsHelper for $10 off your package!

Check out other fun family vacation experiences!

Marvel Superhero Luggage Tags

June 14, 2016 by Danielle

I received a luggage piece free to assist with this post. All opinions are mine alone. #PackMoreFun

My inner nerd is absolutely THRILLED this week guys – and you get to share in the fun! These Marvel Superhero Luggage Tags are perfect for that upcoming vacation, or you can just use them for any superhero tag project. Gotta love flexibility, right?

Check out that suitcase! It was so hard to pick just one from the fantastic Marvel collection at American Tourister. I’m definitely Team Cap, so was leaning towards getting that one until I saw this Hulk suitcase calling my name. I mean – I love purple, for one, and also how could I resist a giant smashing fist?! My youngest, who’s chosen superhero is Hulk, was super excited – especially since it was almost as big as him! The twin in the top pic had to get his moment with the Hulk luggage, too.

Before we get to our awesome Superhero Tags, I couldn’t resist showing you a little more…..it expands, because of course Hulk gets bigger as he gets more angry (just as I get more angry when I pack too much!), the outside is hard, but there’s a little padding under the inside lining – which is covered with MARVEL, by the way. And THE HANDLE SAYS HULK! Needless to say, I’m in love with this suitcase!

For the tags, I wanted to offer plenty of variety – of heroes and of boy or girl. This way practically everyone can be happy! You can either match it to your own Marvel Suitcase, or just add some HERO to your other luggage!

Because you may need a larger tag for some occasions, but smaller for others, I also did a variety of sizes – a Large, Small and Mini. Here’s a standard sharpie marker for comparison…

Large on the left side, small on the top right, then mini the bottom right. I’ll probably utilize the larger tags more often – but the mini’s are so stinkin’ adorable! Just hole-punch the top, write your name or whatever info you WANT on there on the back (or front, you’re choice) then laminate, to make it extra sturdy and reusable.

These print on 8.5×11 sized paper – I recommend cardstock. Click on the links you want to download, then print.

Large Superhero Luggage Tags – Page 1, Page 2, Page 3

Small Superhero Luggage Tags – Page 1, Page 2 (also includes all Mini tags)

I’m loving how the She-Hulk tags look with my new suitcase, and can’t wait to take it on a work trip I have next week – perfect time to show it off! And guess what? Since I know not everyone uses luggage tags, or only does when you’re flying, I also created this fun Superhero Road Trip printable booklet for y’all!

Star Wars Half Marathon

February 3, 2016 by Nikki Cole

Star Wars is already amazing; running a Star Wars themed Half Marathon through Disneyland? EPIC!

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Now I know what you’re thinking ‘there’s no way I could run a half marathon’, well good news there’s a simple 10k or even a 5k you can do as well! Disney has several fun events throughout the year and some of them are different themed runs that take place through the park. I got the great opportunity to run the Disneyland Star Wars Half Marathon this year with my husband.

So yes running is hard and no I am not a huge runner. I have had ACL replacement surgery, torn my MCL, and several other injuries to my knees so no I am not a huge runner because it is hard and it gets boring. I never thought I would run a half marathon because of my injuries and because I don’t enjoy just plain running, but these events are way exciting and it’s satisfying to be able to say I have ran three now.

I have run three half marathons now and every single one of them was hard yes but the amazing memories and the accomplishment from finishing them is amazing. This last one was my absolute favorite, not only did I get another half marathon under my belt, but I got to run with characters in Disneyland and enjoy the celebration of the new Star Wars movie.

If you ever get a chance run in a Disney race, they are so fun and with all the excitement going on you won’t realize how tired you are, you will just know how much fun you are having. Now with that said it does take some training. No you don’t have to go run every day. My training consisted of elliptical, biking, running, strength training, and stretching. Like I said earlier, I have bad knees and continuous running is not recommended at all for them. I am not giving up my races so therefore when I am not racing I need to take care of my knees, so I don’t run hardly at all in training. I train on the elliptical to train my lungs and get really good cardio. I ride a stationary bike to help stretch out my legs and get a little bit of cardio and strength in. No I do not do squats or lunges, if you have bad knees these can cause damage if repetitively done. I do however do leg curls, leg raises (backward and forward), inner outer leg lift/press, and calf raises. I also do walk to help train my feet to be able to stand for that long on concrete without bruising or blistering. So I don’t run all the time; I will run about 1 to 3 times a month but just 2 to 3 miles, not very far at all.

Some tips if you’re thinking of a Disney run:

Plan early! Look up upcoming events (where, when) and mark the registration date. You will need to sign up usually within an hour if you want something other than the half marathon, the half usually fills up within a couple days. So planning is critical otherwise it books up, so look ahead and plan.
Train! Don’t expect it to be really easy, it’s not super hard either but how great your trip is will be determined greatly by the amount of training you do before. Of course you’ll want to go to the park after so if you don’t train you will be so sore and tired you won’t get to enjoy your trip.
Find a buddy! Mine was my amazing husband who pushes me along and supports me the whole way. We talk through the whole thing and he makes the run so much easier knowing I have that help and support.
Enjoy! Take in everything that’s going on! Enjoy your run, don’t just focus on it being a race focus on having a great time and doing something amazing.

Think it will still be way too boring for you? What if I said there were storm troopers, Darth Vadors, and several other characters and decorations from the show throughout the whole race you could take pictures with? We had tons of characters from the movie cheering us on the whole way, along with bands playing music to get us pumped. There were plenty of stops with bathrooms, drinks, and snacks to help us get through it as well.

No I did not get a record time with this half, but it was way exciting and memorable. After the race I also got to spend time in the park which is always an adventure. One of my favorite parts through the race was going through this kind of tunnel and through the tunnel they played Darth Vador’s voice of him breathing and saying ‘come to the dark side’, it was way cool. Another part I really liked was being able to not only run through the park but go through behind the scenes areas. And of course I loved having hundreds of people cheering me on. Like dressing up? Perfect, pick your favorite theme and dress up! Don’t go too overboard because you still have to run. Through my race I saw Darth Vadors, storm troopers, Leia’s, and all sorts of characters from star wars. If you like running or not, but want to get in shape and have a memorable vacation, sign up for one of these runs and I promise you will not regret it, even though I was sore after, the memories from this trip are amazing and are going to stay with me forever.

Other fun from Disneyland…

Watch for the next Disney Half Marathon, and book your Disneyland vacation today! Use promo code: BusyMomsHelper for $10 off your vacation package!

Make Your Own Laptop for Kids

August 15, 2014 by Danielle

Anyone else here a terrible procrastinator? I TOTALLY am! An example would be today’s post, which I actually meant to share with you clear back in June, yet here it is August and I’m finally getting around to it. Plus, it was really on the calendar for earlier this week, but that didn’t happen either. Well, since it’s better late than never…..I’m finally sharing this tutorial on how to Make Your Own Laptop for Kids!

I made these for our kiddos for our road trip to Grandma’s this summer, and surprised them with them when they started getting bored during the drive. They LOVED having their own Superhero laptops so they could ‘work’ or play ‘Angry Birds’ (that’s what they pretended they were doing….aren’t we just fantastic examples for our kids)! I did make a cute generic one, also, just because I fell in love with the patterned felt!

Supplies Needed

2 large flat pieces of felt, for the ‘laptop case’ part
2 plain colored pieces of felt, for the ‘screen’ and under the ‘keyboard’
1 white piece of felt, for the ‘keys’ and ‘buttons’
Scrap felt for the ‘mouse’
Piece of ribbon for the ‘mouse’
Stuffing, for ‘mouse’
A few small scraps of felt
Thread and needle for hand-sewing AND/OR hot glue/gun
Puffy paint (or really nice felt marker) for writing on keys
Scrap pieces of card stock or poster board, thick
Scissors
An imagination!

Here’s kind of the proportions you’ll want your pieces to be:

Directions

Place your 2 main pieces together with the pretty sides out. Cut your card stock/poster board so two pieces fits in between, leaving space on the edges and the middle. I glued mine it to secure them in place.
Glue or sew around the edges of the big pieces, then along the ‘middle’ of the laptop, where it will fold.
Cut out your ‘screen’ and sew/glue it to the TOP layer of the laptop.
Take your few small scraps of felt and cut them into thin, long strips. These will be used on the two sides, inside the laptop, to hold the screen up when you open it. Sew/glue each strip a bit to the top flat of the laptop, then stretch it to the bottom (so there’s a gap….) Just hold it like you would want it open, with the screen being held up, and you’ll know how far down on the bottom piece to sew/glue it.
Cut your mouse felt into a long rectangle shape, then fold it over and sew/glue the sides together. Stuff it with batting or random felt scraps. Put your ribbon INTO the mouse, then sew/glue the top closed.
Glue the other end of the ‘mouse’ ribbon under where your keyboard will be….that way it stays nicely in place. You can sew/glue two little buttons onto your mouse, if you’d like.
Glue your flat plain piece of fabric to the bottom of the laptop, where you want your keyboard, covering that end of the mouse ribbon (cord?).
Cut your white felt into little pieces for your keys. Mine were roughly 3/4″ squared to fit on the felt size I had. Use puffy paint or a felt marker to write the letters, numbers and/or symbols you want on your keys. Then glue them onto the plain keyboard piece.
If you want to get really creative and fun, you can cut out felt shapes to decorate the outside of the ‘laptop’, like I did with my kids’ Superhero ones!

What’s nice about these is they can easily close up when they’re not in use!

My kids have so much fun with these, and it really lets their imaginations go wild. Even after the trip, they still like to pull them out for some ‘work’ or playing!

So grab some cute felt and whip one up that shows your kids’ fun personality! See what type of things they come up with to ‘do’ on this!