We are a bit belated on our progress since we’ve been in non-stop travel mode, and will soon (hopefully) be completely off the grid in the Bahamas. Then we’ll really have to play some catch up! But until then…

After our first big offshore cruise, and making it all the way to Port Royal, SC, we had a few weeks of land adventures ahead of us. Months ago, we planned a pre-Christmas family holiday Florida. I also needed to have a filling replaced. All was arranged around a Thanksgiving timeline.

Our hope was to do some exploring of the Beaufort / Port Royal area and get Bosco buttoned up before leaving for 2 weeks. We chose to keep her at a marina instead of on a mooring ball, since the cost difference was so minimal. Plus the marina we chose had tons of great amenities including a courtesy car, courtesy bikes, on-site restaurant, store, laundry, showers, etc. They were known for their amazing customer-service and it showed immediately upon our arrival. Any time we needed anything; they jumped in to help. We knew that Bosco would be in good hands.

The next few days passed quickly. It was pretty cold here, so we had to bundle up day and night. We explored historic Beaufort on bikes, ate at tons of really yummy local restaurants and visited cute little downtown shops. We also met some of the NICEST people ever. Both of us really enjoyed the charm of South Carolinians. We did our best to work on getting things ready for our return (ie-install the stack pack) and various other boat jobs we wanted to accomplish before setting sail for the Bahamas.

We rented a car for 2 weeks, so we could easily go from place to place. Our first leg in FL took us about 3 hours (on a boat it would be more than 24 hours) so it felt FAST. My appointment was early in the morning on November 24, so we had a pre-dawn departure. It all went fine, other than being sore, swollen and numb. We had an entire afternoon to ourselves, so we explored the Timucuan Preserve, which is a HUGE multi-acre property with tons of history. We only explored a tiny fraction of it, including a cool fort, a monument and a museum. Even though I wasn’t feeling great, it was a very enjoyable afternoon and a great way to use up time until we could check into our hotel.

It was a super swank and modern room with a big comfy bed (yay!) and a big beautiful shower. It also wasn’t freezing for a change, so we could begin to feel like normal humans again. Our night was completely uneventful, other than I couldn’t eat since my mouth was still really sore. But by morning, I definitely felt better (and starving!).

My Aunt Mary was planning to visit Harry Potter land, so we linked up and decided to crash her party; we have wanted to go there since it first opened. The drive was mega easy – its crazy how far you can get going 70 miles per hour. Hotel #2 was much less luxurious but it was more function than anything. We were only there to sleep and knew we were moving the next day so we didn’t care too much.

Once we settled in, we realized that today is Thanksgiving! We planned to go out to dinner, but nothing was open. So we met Aunt Mary and walked to the downtown area to find a quick little joint that had salads and sandwiches. Not the best Thanksgiving meal but the company was really great and made up for it tenfold!

We wasted no time and jumped right into an action-packed week of fun, magic, and adventure.

Day 1

We made our way over to Auntie M’s hotel, Cabana Bay (also our hotel #3) and luckily enough our room was actually ready – so we checked in – before 730AM! That was lucky. It made it super easy then for us to grab breakfast and jump on the bus to the park before it even opened.

When you stay at a Universal Hotel, you get to visit the Parks 1 hour before they open to the public. And apparently this is a big deal, especially for those going to see Harry Potter, because its packed to the brim every day. When we walked up to the gate, it was clear we had no idea what we were doing. An employee overheard us talking and motioned for us to go in a corner, where he had someone give us “First Time Visitor” buttons to don for the day. Every employee that we passed gave us kind words of welcome – we felt so special!

The massive crowds all funneled to the back of the park, we assumed, to the Harry Potter area. We didn’t think to grab a map so we had no clue where we were going, just followed everyone blindly. But then of course we had to stop for picture opportunities everywhere, so the crowd thinned quite a bit by the time we rolled up to the infamous King’s Cross Station. Just outside of there was the Knight Bus and Grimmauld Place. Of course we had to get pictures of everything.

But even after all of that, we couldn’t figure out how to get into the Diagon Alley wizarding world. I guess we really are muggles afterall. Jake found a security guard not too far and asked for some help:

“I know this is going to sound stupid, but its our first time here and we can’t find Diagon Alley or Gringotts Bank (which is one of the most popular rides). Can you help us?”

His name was Mike and he smiled at us and said not to worry, he’d help us. And from that point on, we were VIP (well for the next hour anyway). Of course the entrance was RIGHT in front of us, but it was cleverly hidden. We just didn’t see anyone at the time going through so we didn’t realize that was the entrance at all. Just like the movie. And then we were in the magical world with shops and people and there was a dragon off in the distance. It was a bit of a whirlwind. Mike took pictures of us coming through and then gave us a little tour of the grounds. He showed us how to stow our stuff for free in the lockers, since you can’t carry anything on the rides with you. He then proceeded to take us through Gringotts Bank, passed the line of people (which was already an hour long) and up to the very front of the ride. How cool!?!?!

And if that wasn’t amazing enough – the ride itself was spectacular. It was part roller coaster, part 3D / Digital effects and part real sets. The track moves like a roller coaster but then would twist and turn in weird ways as if in a flying machine. It really was amazing and the visual effects were so cool. By the end of the ride all of our minds were blown!

The rest of the morning was spent exploring Diagon Alley’s shops, Knocturn Alley and everything in-between. It started to get REALLY crowded by then so we left and made our way through the rest of the park (which was much more reasonable). We quickly knocked out Simpsons Land, Men in Black, Shrek and Minions before lunch! There were also a few street shows we passed along the way and Mary and I grabbed a bite for lunch while Jake went on the big roller coaster (I’m not a huge coaster fan and Jake loves em so it worked out well).

By then we were pretty tired, but we wanted to take the Hogwarts Express over to the sister-park. Apparently its a different experience going to Hogwarts vs. coming back. It was actually done really well and pretty fun (also just like in the movies). We were surprised by how well everything was done – and really excited to see Hogsmeade on the other end. But of course, by now, it was so jam packed that we didn’t even bother trying to fight through the crowds. So we headed back to the hotel for some much needed nap-time!

That night there was a tree-lighting ceremony at our hotel, Cabana Bay. There were about a dozen smaller trees around a huge one in the middle. There was also free cocoa, coffee and cookies! There was an Elvis impersonator who put on a concert for the huge crowd of people. Mary of course couldn’t help but start dancing (Being the dancing queen that she is!). We had a really great time, though realized soon that we had to get to bed if we were going to make it through another day.

Day 2

Came too quickly and we all had sore feet (already). But we were really excited to go visit Hogwarts today (which was at the other park). And since we got to go an hour early, we made sure to take full advantage. After we loaded up on coffee and breakfast, we were off. And before long we made our way up to the Hogwarts Castle for our second big Harry Potter ride!

The ride is designed ingeniously. Since the lines get so long, they sort of built them into a tour of the whole Castle. So even while you wait in line, you get to tour all the different areas of the castle from the ground up – including classrooms, hallways, the headmaster’s office, and various other places that are all reminiscent of the movies. It was done so well, I sort of wished we could stand in line longer just to really see all of them. But we were also really stoked to get on the ride – which was also AMAZING – this one took you on a simulated broomstick and you fly around with Harry and friends with a variety of good and evil characters throughout. This ride was possibly the coolest ride any of us had ever experienced!

From there we hit up the other rides including the little Hippogriff roller coaster. Jake went on the dragon chase roller coaster, which he claims was fast, crazy and possibly the best he’d ever experienced. Mary and I sat that one out since we knew our stomachs wouldn’t like it 🙂 – We also walked through all the shops, bought some candy at Honeydukes, at at the 3 Broomsticks and of course had a sampling of butterbeer before heading out. We also rode the Hogwarts Express back to London – a totally different scenario played out and it was VERY cool. All-in-all we were very impressed with Harry Potter land.

The rest of the day we spent in Dr. Seuss land (full of crazy, tripped out nonsensical things) and 3D transformers ride (one of the best action-rides we’ve ever experienced – Mary thought it was too scary but she braved it out with us). Afterwards we were really tired (go figure). Mary treated us to a wood-fired pizza for lunch, then we meandered around some shops before heading back to the hotel.

My parents were due to arrive this afternoon, so we decided to go back to the hotel to wait until they arrive and link up with them. We decided to do a few rounds of bowling (yes, our hotel had a bowling alley!). It was really fun, I don’t think any of us have bowled in years. We met up with them later and enjoyed a meal in town.

We walked around exploring shops a bit, but all of us were tired. We dropped Mary back off at her hotel, made our way back to the hotel and had just enough time to change into PJ’s before we crashed. It was a long day!

Day 3

felt like Day 10 – Jake and I were a little sluggish, but we had to leave early since we were ALL (parents included) going back to Universal. Today was mostly about the parents though. My mom is Harry-Potter obsessed so we really wanted her to explore everything. My dad was mostly along for the ride, but he’s always in good spirits about it. And Mary still had one more day of fun since she was planning to leave tomorrow. We managed to do everything all in one day.

We did manage to hit up a few new rides, including E.T. Even though this ride is about 30 years old, its actually VERY cool – Then Jake and I went on Terminator 2 while Mary and the parents went on Minions. We all loved our respective rides and were pretty tired (and hungry). We sat outside under an umbrella, ate lunch and played a few rounds of poker to pass the time. It was really nice to take a break – which all of us needed!

The afternoon passed quickly and before we knew it, we were dropping Mary off at her hotel, saying our goodbyes, and moving ourselves to the next hotel, #5. We were staying at this one for 3 days, so Jake and I could actually unpack our stuff (finally) and do a much needed load of laundry. We were in a 2-bedroom condo that comes with a full kitchen, so we had a really nice dinner in the room. It was great for all of us to have a low key night after our busy day (and the many full days ahead).

Day 4

(Day 1 of the family vacation) we spent at the Magic Kingdom. Thankfully we had a bit of a later start today (Which we needed). My mom was getting over a cold and Jake and I were still exhausted from the last few days of fun. We donned our Classy Christmas T-shirts and made our way to the park before noon. We hit up a few rides. Then we all split up so that the parents could do their thing, while Jake and I jumped on more rides (and munched on a few snacks). This park was much more crowded than the Universal parks so we did have to wait in more lines, but it was still a great time.

That night, Jake and I decided to walk around the countries at Epcot, snacking on some ethnic cuisine along the way. Then we met up with the parentals for a movie on the beach! Just as the movie ended, we caught the end of a big fireworks show – it couldn’t have been more perfect. A great end to a great day.

Day 5

was our day off (sort of). We slept in today and didn’t have any plans other than a late lunch (1PM). We all spent the morning enjoying the pool. Though the water was a bit chilly for the parents, they sucked it up and joined us for a game of pool-volleyball (We were pretty terrible at it but it was still fun). Jake and I had several rounds with the water slide, the lazy river and the hot tub (YAY). Our lunch in Germany was AMAZING!!! A German feast of champions – and lots of beer to boot. We didn’t plan on staying long afterwards, but ended up going on a bunch of rides throughout the afternoon and into the evening. Of course we hit up all of our favorites (Test track, Soarin, The Land, Space Ship Earth). But we were so tired by the end that we slogged our way back to the room and crashed for the night. (There’s a lot of crashing involved in these trips – mostly from sheer exhaustion).

Day 6

came early. Today we were moving hotels to #6, but first we enjoyed Animal Kingdom. Jake and I went early while the parents took their time. We hit up the water ride, got plenty soaked, and then walked around taking pics of animals. The parents met us later and we all went on a few more rides (Himalayan, Bugs Life, Safari). We enjoyed a pretty quiet lunch out by the water, surrounded by birds. It was a great retreat. We hung out and rested for a bit before making our way out of the park and to our (next) hotel.

We had dinner at Sanaa (the best restaurant around as far as we’re concerned) and then made our way back to the Magic Kingdom. Jake and I love doing parks at night – usually its less crowded and there’s no lines. Plus the rides at night are fun. We lucked out and got on some favorites, including Buzz Lightyear (3x’s in a row), haunted mansion and the 7 dwarfs ride. We met a young guy (maybe 17) in a wheelchair who needed help getting over to thunder mountain/splash mountain. Jake and I walked with him (well, he rolled), all the way there. Splash mountain closed for the night, but we all went on thunder mountain together. It was fun (and we didn’t have to wait in line). We were glad to help – it worked out well for everyone! By 11PM we were all half-asleep and ready to go back to the hotel. It was another full day of fun.

Day 7

Well, we made it. The last day. All of us were tired. It was a bit gloomy out today but thats okay. We didn’t rush anywhere either. It was a luxurious morning of doing nothing but sit out on the balcony. Jake and I eventually made our way to Hollywood studios (the parents would meet us later) to see all the new Star Wars stuff. And it was TOTALLY worth it!

Since the new movie will be out in a few weeks (a few hours now as I’m writing this), there were a bunch of new things happening at this park. All of them just opened up 2 days before – so we were one of the first to see a lot of them. My dad came to meet us (my mom did some shopping) and we all enjoyed . Of course Jake and I had to buy t-shirts and a storm trooper pillow for the boat – we are big nerds – did I mention that yet?

The weather turned pretty rotten by evening and we decided to bail – it wasn’t worth it. Instead, we made our way over to the boardwalk for dinner and dessert. It was not crowded at all, so we really had a great night. Then we made our way back to the hotel, since the parents were leaving at 3AM the next day. It was nice to hang out in the room and not be exhausted. We hung out with the family, chatting and watched animals graze from our balcony.

Days 8-11

Jake and I set our alarm to see the parents off in the morning, but were quickly back to sleep once we said our goodbyes. We didn’t have to check out until 11, so we slept in and took our time packing in the morning. I also had to make a follow-up appointment to have my filling re-shaped (since I couldn’t feel anything when I got it put in), so we had to be in Jacksonville first thing monday morning. Instead of driving all the way back to the boat, we decided to get a hotel on the beach for the weekend. We figured it would be a perfect way to recoup after the whirlwind family vacation festivities. And it was!

We stayed in yet another hotel (#7) right on the ocean. It was sort of like a little studio apartment, completely with living room, kitchenette, bathroom and king sized bedroom – oh and ocean views from the balcony. The hotel was completely remodeled only a few months ago, so everything looked brand new. It was so nice! We loaded up on some healthy food (from the natural market just down the street) and settled in for a relaxing weekend. Most of our time was spent watching movies and televisions shows (cooking channel, animal planet, hgtv). I tried to catch up on blogs and videos while Jake planned all the jobs we have to do when we get back to the boat. The weekend FLEW by and already it was Monday morning, time to leave.

My appointment was really fast, in and out in less than 20 minutes. We were pretty hungry and decided to get a big breakfast before driving back to Port Royal. We stopped at a really cute place called Southern Biscuits. Our breakfast was a biscuit sandwich including a fried chicken breast, applewood smoked bacon, and cheese topped with sausage gravy and home fries. Not our normal fare, but we wanted to indulge for our last big meal.

The 2.5 hour journey back to our Bosco went quickly after that. We had a blast on our land adventures, visiting with my family and everything in-between. But we are so excited to be back to the boat too! We just can’t wait to wrap up the boat jobs and get back underway: to Florida…and BEYOND!