Laced with Love: The Most Magical Place on Earth

Whilst planning our honeymoon to Disneyworld, I discovered that the Wizarding World of Harry Potter would have it's grand opening two weeks before we were there.  And have I ever mentioned to you that I love the Harry Potter series? If not, let it be known, I LOVE the Harry Potter series.  For my sake, Mr. Lace has watched all the movies with me.  However, as time passed, he started asking questions.  "Why does Snape hate Harry so much?" "Does Hermione like Ron?"  "Why didn't Harry die?" He was looking for a short answer, but for any of you Harry Potter fans, you know, there are no short or easy explanations in Harry Potter. I wouldn't say he loves Harry Potter, but I think he'll admit that it's a well-crafted story and is impressed with my in-depth knowledge on the topic (or so I'd like to think).  

Anyway, when I mentioned going to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, Mr. Lace was all for it. However, we didn't make any firm plans.  After our third day at Walt Disney World we realized that if we didn't do a little research and planning, we might not get around to going so Mr. Lace stayed up late looking up tickets and transportation. I know that he wasn't necessarily excited about leaving Walt Disney World to go to Harry Potter Land, but he knew I'd be majorly bummed if we didn't make the trip.  So, on the fifth day of our honeymoon, we hopped in a taxi outside the Grand Floridian and headed to Universal Studios.

Mr. Lace forking over $200 for our tickets. 

So, how do I describe the Wizarding World of Harry Potter? It's about the size of Toon Town at Disneyland if you're familiar with that so I was a bit disappointed with the size.  I kind of feel like they could make an entire theme park just centered around Harry Potter - a Hogsmeade, a Diagon Alley, the Weasley home, Hogwart's Castle, Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, the Dursley's home.  This was a mish mash of Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley and Hogwarts.  When you enter you see the Hogwart's train.

Don't let the snow deceive you. It was 100 degrees and 100% humidity (or so it felt).  See this guy wiping the sweat from his brow?

First item on the agenda was to get something to drink.  Libations anyone? Your choices were frozen butterbeer, cold butterbeer or pumpkin juice.

Sweat-drenched Mrs. Lace drinking cold butterbeer.

Okay, so these drinks were like $5 each which is obviously pricey, but to be expected. I was so STINKIN' excited about buying the butterbeer though. Mr. Lace ordered us each a butterbeer.  While I was drinking it, Mr. Lace said, "How is it?"  I replied, "MMMM it's sooooo good."  Mr. Lace took a sip of his butterbeer and said, "We just paid $10 for cream soda."  Okay, so yes it was pretty much really cold cream soda, but it was so good.

Our next visit was to Hogwart's which happened to be the entrance to a ride.

The line weaves through Hogwart's Castle.

Professor Sprout's greenhouse

Hall of talking photos and yes, they talked! There were larger paintings of the four founders and they talked to each other about He-who-must-not-be-named and Harry Potter.

Mr. Lace taking a dive into the pensieve to check out some old memories.

Dumbledore's office

Honeyduke's and YES, there was a line to get into this store.

I didn't catch photos of Ollivander's (where you could choose your own wand), the Owl Post (where you could send a postcard stamped at Hogsmeade), Dervish and Banges and Zonko's.  There were hour long waits to get into the STORES.

Soon after this, as we were leaving Universal Studios, it began to POUR.  People were walking around drenched and shoeless because everyone was ankle deep in water. What was supposed to be a twenty minute taxi ride back to Walt Disney World, turned into an hour and a half long ride.  We were soaked and tired. At dinner, Mr. Lace asked, "so, what did you think?"  Even after the ridiculous ride back to Walt Disney World, the crazy crowds at Harry Potter Land and the mother of all rain storms, it was totally worth it.

We go to the happiest place on Earth.
I become a real housewife of Orange County.

Laced with Love: The Happiest Place on Earth

The day after our wedding, Mr. Lace and I got up at 6 am, got ready, went back to our place to drop off stuff and pick stuff up and headed out to the airport to catch our 10 am flight to Florida.  We left Orange County, California and 2 sausage and egg McMuffins and 6 hours later, we landed in Orange County, Florida!  We found the Disney Magical Express which would magically transport us over to Disneyworld.

Those magical sandwiches are our favorites. Unfortunately, we lacked the foresight to buy some extra food to bring on the plane.

This is not just a bus, it is a BUS. The seats reclined, had a foot rest and room for feet. It was nice to stretch out after the flight.

We didn't do much that first night, but it was so much fun. We walked around Downtown Disney and ate at Planet Hollywood.  We crashed through after that because we were so exhausted from the day before.

We woke up bright and early. Okay, no, we didn't. We slept in till 11 am everyday. I felt like we were wasting precious Disney World time, but couldn't figure out why it was so hard for us to wake up at 7 or 8 am in the morning so we could head out the parks.  Seriously, it wasn't until day 2 when we remembered the time change. We were so unaware of time while we were there... it was so awesome.

Anyone, on Day 1, we headed out to the parks and figured out what it takes about 30 minutes to get from one place on the DW resort to another. So, here's us, kinda bored at the monorail.

I know you can't actually see the monorail. Apparently, since it was already 1 pm, everyone was at the parks so we couldn't find someone to take a photo.  Except that guy in the blue shirt in the background. I guess we could've asked him.

So, here's the rundown of each park:

Magic Kingdom
We went on a few rides here, but since there was a lot of overlap, we didn't really go on any rides that we had back at home at Disneyland. This park was about three times the size of Disneyland, but had just about the same attractions and rides. We really enjoyed our time here and the castle is amazing, but to be honest, we think Disneyland is a bit more charming.

This castle is a lot bigger than our castle!

Animal Kingdom
The best ride by far here was the Safari ride. It was like jungle cruise, on land, but with real animals! It was STANK hot though. I'm not sure why this park felt extra hot. It was probably the weather, but we attributed it to the animals.  We got to see rhinos, hippos, pelicans, flamingos, ostriches, a lion and giraffes!

There are no fences at all. You just drive through in a truck and the animals are chillin' on the side, all docile and calm!  I'm sure a safari in Africa would be better, but this has to be the next best thing.

Epcot
This was our FAVORITE park by far. We went there 4 out of 5 days. We loved the food, attractions and the food!  Here's the view from Italy.

Chris was a little unimpressed with the Epcot ball because he felt like it looked bigger when he first saw them on Full House and Family Matters.

Look who came to visit us when we ate at Les Chefs de France! He talked...or squeaked!

It was also opening day Captain EO which brought us back to the good ole days. They made some updates to the show that surprised us. There's a whip that whips out from under the chair and a water spray when Hooter sneezes.

Hollywood Studios
Because I never go to California Adventure, I'd never been on Toy Story Mania which, I'll admit, I love more than Astroblasters now! At the beginning of the game, I was beating Mr. Lace, but then I stopped watching the counter, thinking I was ahead, and by the end, I was far, far, far below.

We went boating on our last day before we needed to head over to the airport.

And the view of our hotel from the boat!

Food
The food was terrific. Our favorites turned out to be Narcoosee's at the Grand Floridian, Teppan Edo at Epcot, Les Chefs de France at Epcot and Boulangerie at Epcot. Can you see why we spent so much time at Epcot?

At Wolfgang Puck after a long day. Macadamia nut crusted chicken on mashed potatoes.

Free champagne toast at Narcoosee's.

Here's my dessert - chocolate mousse!

We reluctantly flew home to LA.  I wish we could've stayed for another week, but alas, it was time to go home. I was so bummed and to make matters worse, our flight was delayed, we taxi'd at LAX for an hour before we could deplane, our shuttle ride left because of our delay, we waited for 30 minutes for a Super Shuttle and then had to circle LAX for 30 minutes before the driver could drive us out to Orange County.  Sigh. We should've never left. :(

Next up, I, happily, and Mr. Lace, semi-reluctantly, made a half day trip out of Disneyworld (don't worry, it was for a really magical reason) and I'll share all the details in my next post.

Laced with Love: Real Housewife of Orange County

No one tells you how BUSY it is after you get married! Maybe it's not the case for many of you out there, but for me, things are finally beginning to slow down.  Well, sort of. Summer vacation ends this week and I'm heading back to get my classroom ready for my next group of students. I've been busy doing all the moving I didn't do before the wedding from my place to Mr. Lace's...I mean, our place. I never really understood the whole nesting thing before getting married, but now I do.  There's a bird family that's made their nest on a tall bush by our garage and Mr. Lace and I go out to check on them everyday to see what they're up to. They're pulling branches, twigs, leaves to make their nest a comfortable place to lay eggs and raise their babies. No babies in sight, here, but I at least understand an innate desire to make our place homey and comfortable. 

So, I've been doing a lot of shopping, cooking, cleaning and decorating.  When I go to Target at 10 a.m., I'm rolling with all the other housewives of Orange County. It's pretty nice to have the freedom to do whatever I want during the day, but it's all going to come to a screeching halt once school is back in session. 

I've been working on all my name change stuff which I'll post about later, but I just wanted to drop back in and say hello!  Next up, the honeymoon!