While most of our time here will be spent in Cocoa Beach, we headed to Orlando for a couple of days to check out theme parks. Our week started with a day at Universal Studios, which none of us had visited before. I’ve been dying to go and check out the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and it lived up to all the hype.

We headed straight for Hogsmeade when we got into the park. It was cooler than normal for this time of year in Florida, which worked to our advantage. The crowds were relatively small when the park opened. So, James and I got on to Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey right away. It ended up being my favorite ride of the entire week! You walk through Hogwarts to get to the ride, and all of the detail put into the castle is absolutely amazing. Then, you get strapped in to go on a magical ride throughout the Hogwarts grounds with Harry. The ride combines video elements, animatronics and motion for a real thrill.

We, of course, couldn’t resist grabbing a butterbeer when we got off the ride. They offer it as a soda, frozen or hot. We went for the classic soda version, which tastes similar to cream soda. It’s topped with a frothy, butterscotch cream. We sipped our drinks as we wandered through Hogsmeade and checked out a few shops. You can buy just about everything from the books, from wands to chocolate frogs. We couldn’t resist picking up a couple of chocolate wands for some friends.

Next, we hopped on the Hogwarts Express to head over to Diagon Alley. In order to ride the train and see all of Harry Potter World, you need a park-2-park pass, because the attractions are spread out over two parks. Like all of the rides in Harry Potter world, the train ride was magical. The ride is also different each time if you ride it both ways! We stepped outside into the streets of London, and ducked into Diagon Alley.

This area of Harry Potter world is also full of shops and restaurants inspired by the books. There’s a Race Through Gringotts ride, which is extremely popular. The wait was 1.5 hours, so we decided to grab lunch at the Leaky Cauldron before heading to check out the rest of the park.

I wasn’t allowed to watch The Simpsons growing up, but a large part of the park is dedicated to the long-running show. This section of the park is setup like Springfield, the town where the show is set. There are several rides, as well as famous food from the show. We couldn’t resist trying Duff beer and a giant Lard Lad donut. I was constantly amazed by all of the detail put into each area of the park.

We went on a few more rides before taking the Hogwarts Express back to Islands of Adventure. We kept hopping on rides until about 5 p.m. there, when we decided to call it a day.

We stopped for a treat at the Toothsome Chocolate Emporium  on our way out of the park. If you have a sweet tooth, you MUST stop here. The restaurant has everything from specialty chocolates and macarons, to the most insane milkshakes I’ve ever seen. James and I split and peanut butter and jelly shake, which came topped with half a sandwich and a cupcake. It was a meal in itself, and I’ll be dreaming about that shake for a while.

We had a blast at Universal, and I would definitely go back. We lucked out with minimal crowds, and were able to do almost everything we wanted at the park in one day. I’ll be back later this weekend with another recap from our day at Disney!

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James isn’t a huge fan of roller coasters, which you can tell from his face while riding Tower of Terror. We were cracking up because he had the same, unimpressed expression in all of the photos they snapped on the rides. I hadn’t been on a roller coaster in years, but after we got the first one out of the way I was pumped. Tower of Terror was my favorite at Hollywood Studios!

We headed to Epcot around lunchtime to catch a couple of rides and eat/drink our way around the world. We were having so much fun I didn’t take many pictures! We started with margaritas in Epcot, where I got the most refreshing drink I’ve ever had: a frozen avocado margarita. It sounds weird, but it was delicious! We made stops in Germany, Morocco, Japan, France and Canada to grab snacks and explore some of the shops. It’s pretty amazing how realistic many of the countries are and it made me want to travel internationally again soon.

After a few hours at Epcot, we ended our day at Magic Kingdom. This was my favorite park, mainly because it was so nostalgic. Walking around the park brought back fond memories of visiting as a child. We hit up a couple of classic rides (It’s a Small World and Pirates of the Caribbean) before calling it a day. James and I went to bed immediately when we got back to Tampa — I don’t think we’d been that tired in a long time! But it was so worth it. We definitely want to spend a few days at the park next time we visit — we barely scratched the surface of everything there is to do!

We were up early the next day to take in the Gasparilla Pirate Festival festivities in Tampa. It’s basically Florida’s version of Mardi Gras with a whole lot of pirates. Katie and Pat are pros and made sure we had a backpack full of drinks for the day. It was so nice to be able to bring our own instead of having to pay for super expensive, not-so-great beer from vendors.

The people watching was pretty amazing because so many people were dressed in costume for the day. We walked along Bayshore for a couple of hours taking it all in before finding our spots for the parade, which was an absolute blast. They throw out beads instead of candy and I got really into trying to snag some. I basically yelled as loudly as possible to get their attention, which seemed to work. We made some new friends with the people we were standing next to and had fun joking around and getting to know them.

We grabbed some dinner after the parade and James and I went to bed super early again. We were up early Sunday to fly out and were so sad to leave. Living so far away from our best friends isn’t always easy, but we try to make the most of our brief reunions. James and I are already planning our next visit!

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