Orlando - Theme parks trip 2019

It's that time again. Time to jet across the country to the land of sunshine and mid-afternoon rainstorms.... oh and lots of theme parks.

Our flight was early. Left the house at 5:30 am.
But despite there being more people than I would expect at the airport that time of day, we got on our flight and made it all the way to Orlando.

The kids think the Orlando airport has expanded since our last visit... I am not convinced, nor am I curious enough to look it up ;)

First ride in Florida... the airport tram ;)

This trip we are adding Universal! I know we are Disney people, but with the kids being teenagers we decided to add to our repertoire.
We are starting our trip at the Universal Portofino Bay resort. We decided to lean into the Universal experience and got the 4-day tickets, the dining plan, and have access to the hotel club lounge.

Almost to Universal! 

The resort is lovely. Really beautifully themed.
Our room is fairly standard, but very nicely sized - has a small table and a nice lounging chair. Also a tub and shower.

Walking to the room at Portofino Bay

After we got settled into the room, we hit the lounge, which puts out an evening "reception" during the dinner hour. We snacked a bit and then decided to hop on the water taxi to the park area.
The boat takes you to the CityWalk area, and the entrance to both parks is a short walk.

View of Portofino Bay Resort from Boat Launch 

Tonight we headed into Islands of Adventure. We had no plans beyond maybe some more snacks. But thought a look around might help us plan the next day.

Will we dare a ride on "The Hulk" coaster today? 

The Spiderman ride was the one that got us.
The ride itself is an interesting mix of the car moving through space, movie projections, motion simulator, and additional effects.  The closest the kids had been on something like this was the Ratatouille ride at the Walt Disney Studios Park, Disneyland Paris. But this ride is quite a bit more intense.

After the ride, the young man and I grabbed a snack and started back to the boat. But the adventure crew (Hubby and our brave young lady) decided to go find some dinos and rode Jurassic Park.

We all met up in the room when it was over.