All Aboard the Hogwart's Express!
Tucker pointed to it and said "choo choo!" The conductor (who had a British accent, like most of the employees in this area) came over to talk to us. I told him how Tucker loves rides, and he said Tucker should be in Gryffindor house since he's so brave. That made he smile, he is a brave little boy:
The entrance to Harry Potter World leads through Hogsmeade, we saw Zonko's joke shop, Ollivander's wand shop, and other places from HP books. Then we saw Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
There are 3 rides in HP world: the Hyppogriff ride (a kiddie coaster for Tucker!), a crazy double roller coaster called the Dragon Coaster (for Chris), and a 3D simulated ride through Hogwart's castle (for me). The line for the Hogwart's ride was over 2 hours long, but I got up and on the ride within a few minutes. I was actually upset, because the line for the ride was all through Hogwart's castle, and that place is amazing! I passed Dumbledore's Office, the Defense Against the Darks Arts classroom, and the Sorting Hat. I got strapped into the ride, the first few seconds were okay. I felt like I was flying on a broomstick with Harry Potter and his friends.
The entrance to Harry Potter World leads through Hogsmeade, we saw Zonko's joke shop, Ollivander's wand shop, and other places from HP books. Then we saw Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
There are 3 rides in HP world: the Hyppogriff ride (a kiddie coaster for Tucker!), a crazy double roller coaster called the Dragon Coaster (for Chris), and a 3D simulated ride through Hogwart's castle (for me). The line for the Hogwart's ride was over 2 hours long, but I got up and on the ride within a few minutes. I was actually upset, because the line for the ride was all through Hogwart's castle, and that place is amazing! I passed Dumbledore's Office, the Defense Against the Darks Arts classroom, and the Sorting Hat. I got strapped into the ride, the first few seconds were okay. I felt like I was flying on a broomstick with Harry Potter and his friends.Then the dragons came up, and smoke blew in my face. Then we flew into the Acrumantula cave, and the spider spit in my face! That was when I covered my eyes and said "it's not real, it's not real" lol!! I left my eyes closed for most of the rest of it, and felt very sick by the end. I came out of the ride, and Chris was ready to hear all about it. I told him I needed to sit for awhile, and never ride another ride again!
So Tucker and Chris took their several turns on the Hyppogriff ride. Tucker loved it, of course, but he put up no fight after the second turn, when Chris told him it was time to go find something else to do.
Chris rode the Dragon Challenge, which he said was great. 
There was a huge playground, Tucker loved it! "up da stairs!"
We played in the playground for quite a while, and I also called GKTW to make sure we could get a replacement button, they said they'd have one waiting for us.
Chris rode the Dragon Challenge, which he said was great.Usually, we go right onto the rides, so even when we were not together, we usually reunited pretty quickly. Well this time, Chris was gone for over 10 minutes, and Tucker was so super-attached to Chris that he was freaking out without him. So I called Chris to see if he was off of the ride or what was going on. Chris was about to get on the roller coaster, but he answered the phone-at that time, the Wish button fell out of his pocket and onto the ground below the ride! (We didn't wear the button because it kept coming undone and we were scared to lose it.) So after that Chris was very mad at me for calling him!
Once he got off the ride, we hiked back to the front of the park to Guest Services, and they said we could use the GAP pass to get to the front of everything, and then get a replacement button from GKTW that night. So we were okay. We stopped for lunch at the Comic Book Cafe since the line was short. Tucker could barely contain himself since Chris went in line to get our food and we had to sit at the table. By then we should have known better, I should have went to get the food, Tucker can't stand to have Chris more than 3 feet away;)
The next place we went was Jurassic Park. It was a very neat environment.
There was a huge playground, Tucker loved it! "up da stairs!"
We played in the playground for quite a while, and I also called GKTW to make sure we could get a replacement button, they said they'd have one waiting for us.
Chris and Tucker hopped on the Flying Pterdactyl ride. It was super tame, but I still refused to ride!
Tucker was not happy about leaving Jurassic Park, but it was time for Chris's favorite-Superhero Alley (I think that's what it was called.) 
We bought Chris a Spiderman mug at the gift shop, then I saw a sign to meet Spiderman across the street. I was so excited, Tucker loves "Pey-dah-man" lol (he even wore his Spiderman shirt)and so does Chris!
After we met Spiderman we went across the street to meet Rogue and Storm from XMen. We took a picture with them, then a Universal employee came up to us. She told us that if we waited for 10 minutes, she'd gather all of the superheros so we could have a meet and greet and not wait in any more lines. We agreed! So we sat and let Tucker lick all of his Fritos.
Wolverine ran past us, then he saw us and asked us to come over. Then Captain America came, and everyone else. Tucker loved their tights! He just stared at each one of them, it was so sweet.
He sat on Captain America's lap; Captain America wanted to know why he had Spiderman on his shirt instead of him, Spiderman said his other shirt was in the laundry:)
Here we are with the Superheros:) This was Chris's Dream Come True, haha.
There was one more ride we had to let Chris ride-the Hulk Roller coaster. He went right on, and he loved it. But this time Tucker really went nuts when Chris left, and I had to rock him and hug him the whole time. So after that, I told Chris he was not to leave Tucker's side! That is the price he pays for being the favorite, I guess.
Then we headed over to Seuss Landing. The trip was for Tucker, after all, so we took him to the Car-o-seuss-el. He was so happy, he said "ride da horse" but that was definitely not a horse!
We rode the Cat in the Hat ride, which was pretty neat. We rode in little cars that took us through the Cat in the Hat book. Tucker grinned the whole time. Tucker and Chris rode the Dr. Seuss trolley, and then we called it a day. Before we left I bought a Hermione wand from the gift shop, she is my favorite character. I have practiced, but it still doesn't work;)
The problem was that it was mainly big nets, and Tucker was obviously too young and too small for it. The bigger kids kept climing over him; they weren't being mean, he just kept getting in the way, poor kid!
After Tucker almost fell down the net, I told him it was time to get down! He was so mad, and then we realized that the ride we wanted to take him on was broken! The Shamu Express roller coaster said the height requirement was 42" and Tucker is only 39". So in the middle of a mini-meltdown, a SeaWorld employee walked over and asked me what was wrong. I told him Tucker was too small for all the rides in this area, and he was not happy! The guy asked me if I read the fine print; I told him I was a little busy. He said the requirement was 42" to ride without a parent, but with a parent riding, Tucker only had to be 36". Well that was it, Chris picked Tucker up and ran up the Exit ramp. Tucker wiped his tears and was so happy:) He waited patiently for several rides to go by before he and Chris got their turn.
Tucker had a blast, and this ride took a picture in the middle. It is one of my favorite pictures from the whole trip, Tucker and Chris are both grinning, and Tucker is hanging onto Chris, I will have to scan it in and share it, I LOVE it!
Then it went from bad to worse very quickly. Tucker started crying "up da stairs!!" He wanted to climb up the stairs and be on stage with Elmo and the characters. It sounds cute, but his little heart was broken. He literally did not understand why he couldn't go up the stairs. When Tucker gets something in his head, and he gets a certain look, I just know it's over...there is no fighting him other than removing the temptation. So we walked out of the theatre, and he cried louder "back inside! up da stairs!" I told him he was not allowed because he was too loud for the other kids who were watching Elmo. He was so upset, and he just didn't understand.
Tucker was not happy about leaving Jurassic Park, but it was time for Chris's favorite-Superhero Alley (I think that's what it was called.)I had read in the guidebook that the Spiderman ride was amazing. We went straight there, but Tucker was too short to ride by about 1/4". :( We should have spiked his hair up! So we went up to the front, there is a child swap policy. Two parents can wait in line, then when they get to the front, one parent rides while the other parent waits with the small child in a special waiting area. Then when the ride is over, the parents swap places and the other one gets to ride the ride.
We decided to go up to the child swap place so that Tucker wouldn't freak out when Chris left us. Tucker and I stayed in the kid area, looking at the Spiderman posters and souveniers. Chris liked the ride, but he said it definitely wasn't his favorite.
We bought Chris a Spiderman mug at the gift shop, then I saw a sign to meet Spiderman across the street. I was so excited, Tucker loves "Pey-dah-man" lol (he even wore his Spiderman shirt)and so does Chris!
After we met Spiderman we went across the street to meet Rogue and Storm from XMen. We took a picture with them, then a Universal employee came up to us. She told us that if we waited for 10 minutes, she'd gather all of the superheros so we could have a meet and greet and not wait in any more lines. We agreed! So we sat and let Tucker lick all of his Fritos.
Wolverine ran past us, then he saw us and asked us to come over. Then Captain America came, and everyone else. Tucker loved their tights! He just stared at each one of them, it was so sweet.
He sat on Captain America's lap; Captain America wanted to know why he had Spiderman on his shirt instead of him, Spiderman said his other shirt was in the laundry:)
Here we are with the Superheros:) This was Chris's Dream Come True, haha.
There was one more ride we had to let Chris ride-the Hulk Roller coaster. He went right on, and he loved it. But this time Tucker really went nuts when Chris left, and I had to rock him and hug him the whole time. So after that, I told Chris he was not to leave Tucker's side! That is the price he pays for being the favorite, I guess.
Then we headed over to Seuss Landing. The trip was for Tucker, after all, so we took him to the Car-o-seuss-el. He was so happy, he said "ride da horse" but that was definitely not a horse!
We rode the Cat in the Hat ride, which was pretty neat. We rode in little cars that took us through the Cat in the Hat book. Tucker grinned the whole time. Tucker and Chris rode the Dr. Seuss trolley, and then we called it a day. Before we left I bought a Hermione wand from the gift shop, she is my favorite character. I have practiced, but it still doesn't work;)
We took Tucker back to GKTW, where our new button was waiting for us. We put Tucker right to bed, and I started planning our trip to Sea World that night.
My plan was to go to Islands of Adventure in the morning, then let Tucker take a nap, then go to Sea World at night. Well I did not realize that Sea World only has shows during the day! I guess I thought the stadiums were indoors, so it didn't matter what time it was. I called SeaWorld to get a list of showtimes, and we had missed almost every show!! :( I was so upset!
There were two shows we could still see-the Elmo and Abby Cadabby Christmas show, and the Shamu Rocks the World Show at 930pm or 1045 pm (they were late since it was New Year's Eve). So we planned to see Elmo at 8 and Shamu at 930, assuming we lasted that long.
We got to Sea World at 6, and realized that the kiddie ride area was on the opposite side from the Elmo show. We told them we had a wish button, so they said we could get great seats, but we still had to be in our seats at least 30 minutes ahead of time. So we took a quick trip to the kiddie area. Tucker started crying "hotel, hotel" pretty much as soon as we entered SeaWorld:( He had a good nap, but he was just done!
So Chris and I ran past the carousel, because the line was long and we didn't want to fight to get him back off after. There was an enormous playground, so we decided to spend our time there.
It was a good choice at first, as Tucker loved it.
The problem was that it was mainly big nets, and Tucker was obviously too young and too small for it. The bigger kids kept climing over him; they weren't being mean, he just kept getting in the way, poor kid!
After Tucker almost fell down the net, I told him it was time to get down! He was so mad, and then we realized that the ride we wanted to take him on was broken! The Shamu Express roller coaster said the height requirement was 42" and Tucker is only 39". So in the middle of a mini-meltdown, a SeaWorld employee walked over and asked me what was wrong. I told him Tucker was too small for all the rides in this area, and he was not happy! The guy asked me if I read the fine print; I told him I was a little busy. He said the requirement was 42" to ride without a parent, but with a parent riding, Tucker only had to be 36". Well that was it, Chris picked Tucker up and ran up the Exit ramp. Tucker wiped his tears and was so happy:) He waited patiently for several rides to go by before he and Chris got their turn.
Tucker had a blast, and this ride took a picture in the middle. It is one of my favorite pictures from the whole trip, Tucker and Chris are both grinning, and Tucker is hanging onto Chris, I will have to scan it in and share it, I LOVE it!
After that, it was time to see Elmo. We headed over to the Elmo show, and got great seats. By this point, neither the DVD player or CD player with headphones were making him happy, so Chris and Tucker walked up and down the bleacher stairs until the show started.
Tucker liked it for about 5 minutes.
Then it went from bad to worse very quickly. Tucker started crying "up da stairs!!" He wanted to climb up the stairs and be on stage with Elmo and the characters. It sounds cute, but his little heart was broken. He literally did not understand why he couldn't go up the stairs. When Tucker gets something in his head, and he gets a certain look, I just know it's over...there is no fighting him other than removing the temptation. So we walked out of the theatre, and he cried louder "back inside! up da stairs!" I told him he was not allowed because he was too loud for the other kids who were watching Elmo. He was so upset, and he just didn't understand.Well, I burst out in tears at this point, as I feel like I punished Tucker for doing something he didn't even know was wrong. He watches Elmo every day at home, and I was just so upset that he was so sad. I told Chris that I wished he could just have seen Elmo, so Chris went to ask the attendant if Tucker could. They said Elmo and Abby come out after every show, and Tucker could be first in line to see them. I was so emotionally exhausted by this point (taking your kid on a Wish trip is just so full of every emotion, and it was taking its toll) that I wasn't even happy about it. We took Tucker to the line, and waited. He still was throwing a fit, and I am sure when Elmo and Abby came out, they were not too happy to meet Tucker!
His little face lit up, he only sat there for a few minutes before he got up and ran off. But I was happy that he at least met Elmo.
The picture I got wasn't very good, so we wanted to see what the professional pictures looked like. Chris and I went right over to the picture kiosk, but they weren't ready yet. Tucker was crying "hotel hotel" so we decided to leave. We ended up having no idea where we were going, so we walked in circles for about 30 minutes. Right before we left, we decided to check another picture kiosk. The picture was up, and it was so cute, so we bought it. We left, picked up Taco Bell, and were in bed by 10 on New Year's Eve! We had one more day at Disney the next day, so as usual, we needed our rest. We will have to visit Orlando again one day to meet Shamu and his friends.
His little face lit up, he only sat there for a few minutes before he got up and ran off. But I was happy that he at least met Elmo.
The picture I got wasn't very good, so we wanted to see what the professional pictures looked like. Chris and I went right over to the picture kiosk, but they weren't ready yet. Tucker was crying "hotel hotel" so we decided to leave. We ended up having no idea where we were going, so we walked in circles for about 30 minutes. Right before we left, we decided to check another picture kiosk. The picture was up, and it was so cute, so we bought it. We left, picked up Taco Bell, and were in bed by 10 on New Year's Eve! We had one more day at Disney the next day, so as usual, we needed our rest. We will have to visit Orlando again one day to meet Shamu and his friends.
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