Celebration in the Oaks

On December 20, 2020 By reneemarie31In Family Life, Louisiana, TravelLeave a comment

My personal Christmas tradition is going to Celebration in the Oaks in my hometown of New Orleans. I’ve been attending almost every year since I was a child. In elementary school, I performed at it one night each year with my school choir. It was always a fun time, because after the performance, I could run around with all my friends seeing lights and riding the rides.

Through high school and college, I usually attended with a large group of friends. Some years, I went with my family. I’ve been living in Baton Rouge now for 14 years, but I still go into New Orleans every year to attend Celebration in the Oaks in City Park. There is something awesome about experiencing the same lovely fun year after year.

This year, of course, was different. It is 2020 and nothing is the same. It was only open for a driving tour. We still drove down last week to see it.

It was a mixture of lights used each year with some new ones thrown in.

Many of the lights are NOLA themed.

One unique touch is that your family’s names showed up on the nice and naughty lists as your car reached them. My daughter showed up on the nice list and my husband on the naughty list.

There was a special tribute to our healthcare heroes this year during the global pandemic.

Here are a few pictures from the past years at Celebration in the Oaks. My absolute favorite ride in all of City Park is the carousel, also known as the flying horses. I love carousels, but this is my favorite carousel ever.

Another great part of our annual tradition is visiting Storyland. It was updated a couple years ago, but many of the classics remain, including the dragon slide and Cinderella pumpkin.

And then of course there is the annual picture in front of the poinsetta tree.

During a normal non-Covid year, I recommend visiting Celebration in the Oaks. It is full of fun experiences. From walking through the lights, seeing the decorated Christmas trees, riding the Ladybug roller coaster, roasting marshmallows, riding the train, and more, it is always a great time.

Universal Studios Florida Pt. 1 – Diagon Alley

On December 17, 2020December 17, 2020 By reneemarie31In Books, TravelLeave a comment

I’ve posted our pictures from Islands of Adventure. Now, I shall share some of my pictures from the other park, Universal Studios. We spent two days in this park also. This post will be focused on the Harry Potter themed section of the park.

You enter through a replica of Kings Cross Station in London.

The Knight Bus and it’s driver are available for a chat and photos. There is even a talking shrunken head.

Diagon Alley is just like in the books and movies. A place for witches and wizards to shop and get all the things they might need.

My daughter wanted her very own Crookshanks from the Magical Menagerie shop.

She was also able to keep using her interactive wand purchased at IOA to do spells. With a little assistance from a witch, we started to get better at them.

Escape from Gringotts is the big ride in this park. We went straight there on our first day and had no wait. We all sat down on the ride, but my daughter was freaking out and scared. We ended up taking her off and using the child swap room so that my husband and I could each ride individually. It is an adventurous ride through the bank just like in the book and film.

We saw two different shows during our time at Diagon Alley. The first was Tales of Beedle the Bard, which was a puppet style show telling some of the classic wizarding fairy tales.

We also saw Celestina Warbeck and the Banshees, a celebrated witch singer. They sang and danced to some unique holiday tunes, including “My Baby Gave Me a Hippogriff for Christmas.”

We had some delicious ice cream at Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour. I had the clotted cream flavor. Delicious!

Like any good wizard visiting a shopping area during a global pandemic, we made sure to wash our hands!

Overall, we had a great time exploring this part of the park several times over our two days.

Islands of Adventure – Pt. 3

On December 9, 2020 By reneemarie31In TravelLeave a comment

I have already shared two blog posts with pictures from our recent trip to Islands of Adventure. Those included my pictures from Hogsmeade and Seuss Landing, where we spent the majority of our time. This last post shares a few more pictures from other parts of the park.

We visited Jurassic Park. I declined to go on the Jurassic Park water ride, but my daughter and I did do Pternadon Flyers which is only for children and one parent.

We did do the raptor encounter which is fun. I got a fun video out of it of me acting like a spaz.

We also spent a small amount of time in superhero island. Since I don’t ride the big roller coasters, our time here was limited to one ride on Spiderman, which is a 3-D ride.

We did a socially distanced meet and greet with Spiderman and Captain America. They sang a fun birthday song to the boy who went right before us.

Each store in different areas of the park had themed Christmas trees, which was quite fun. There was an official Christmas tree scavenger hunt that one could participate in, but I didn’t do that.

We saw these characters in front of where the Poseidon’s Fury show would normally be. It is currently closed due to Covid.

Overall, we had a really fun two days in the Islands of Adventure park at Universal Studios.

Islands of Adventure – pt. 2 – Seuss Landing

On December 4, 2020 By reneemarie31In Books, TravelLeave a comment

I got kind of busy after my first post from our recent Universal Studios trip. I’m finally getting around to sharing my next post with pictures from Seuss Landing at Islands of Adventure.

Of course, this was one of my daughter’s favorite parts of the park as it has rides designed for children (and Dr. Seuss fans of all ages). We spent a lot of time here over our two days in this park and were able to ride each attraction several times.

My daughter’s favorite ride was definitely One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. It is basically a Dumbo style ride, except that you can steer your fish up or down in order to get your parents soaking wet. Any seven year old’s dream.

There were socially distanced character meet and greets.

We had to make a reservation for the meet and greet with the Grinch, I suppose because it is more popular. It was fun, because he acts extra Grinchy, but of course, they are really trying to sell you on a photo package, which is why I only got a random picture that I took myself at the end.

There were also several cute shows telling Dr. Seuss stories or singing Christmas songs.

Our second day at IOA, we wore cute social distancing Grinch shirts that I had made for our trip. I wouldn’t touch you with a 39 1/2 foot pole.

Cute photo ops, but many of the stores and food establishments were closed, I suppose due to Covid?

We did order some pizza one day from Circus McGurkus Cafe Stoo-pendous and enjoy it outside.

We enjoyed the theming of Seuss Landing a lot. We even watched The Lorax movie one night during our trip.

Islands of Adventure Pt. 1 – Hogsmeade Village

On November 27, 2020 By reneemarie31In Books, TravelLeave a comment

We decided to take a last minute trip to Universal Studios in Orlando right before Thanksgiving. We haven’t traveled anywhere since Covid-19 started, and I was feeling an itch to go. Tickets were discounted, so we just decided to go. It was a controversial decision, but I think we did the best we could to stay safe and had a lot of fun in the process.

This post will share some of our pictures from Islands of Adventure. We spent two days in this park. The first day of our trip was the least crowded. Our second IOA day was a few days later on the weekend, so crowds had picked up a bit. On that day, we went to the park at opening, left around lunchtime, and came back at night to avoid the most crowded part of the day.

The part of Universal Studios that I was most excited to visit were the two Harry Potter themed lands. I have not been to Universal since these were built several years ago. In Islands of Adventure, you get to visit both Hogsmeade and Hogwarts!

Hogsmeade was a wintry wonderland covered in snow and Christmas decor.

My family represents three different Hogwarts houses, so we wore masks to represent. My husband is a Slytherin, my daughter is a Gryffindor, and I am a proud Hufflepuff. We just need a Ravenclaw to round out our group.

We visited stores all themed down to the details according to the book’s descriptions.

My daughter got an interactive Hermione Granger wand that allowed her to do spells around both of the parks. Completing the spells was a bit trickier than I expected and did require some practice to get right.

We had a lunch of fish and chips at The Three Broomsticks, which were quite tasty. I also sampled some Butterbeer.

The Hogwarts castle was a sight to behold and even more fun to see lit up at night.

The castle is home to the Forbidden Journey ride, which I quite enjoyed, but my daughter was a bit frightened of. It is an adventure as you fly around Hogwarts with Harry.

My daughter’s favorite ride was Flight of the Hippogriff which is a family friendly roller coaster. She could have ridden that one all day if we let her. Kiddie roller coasters are as far as I go in the roller coaster world, so we didn’t even attempt the popular Hagrid’s Magical Creatures ride.

We saw two shows during our time in Hogsmeade. The first was the Triwizard Spirit Rally, which showcased perfomances by students from the other two magical schools, Durmstrang and Beauxbatons.

We also saw the Hogwarts Frog Choir which performed some great Christmas tunes.

We did not get a chance to ride the Hogwarts Express, as we did not buy park to park tickets. Maybe one day!

JAMNOLA

On October 11, 2020 By reneemarie31In Louisiana, Music, Travel1 Comment

The lack of travel posts on my blog over the past several months makes me sad. Thanks Covid-19! But today, I did go to an awesome place in my hometown of New Orleans. It is called JAMNOLA. The JAM stands for Joy, Art, and Music and it is an artistic celebration of New Orleans culture.

It is a guided tour through themed rooms which are each full of unique, colorful, and truly NOLA art. I highly recommend checking it out. It is fun and they encourage photography and fun selfies. It is a great place to spend an hour.

Much of the art is made with reclaimed materials, such as the lanterns in the feather room (made out of Gatorade bottles).

There were paintings, fun wallpaper, or other art installations on every wall and floor.

There was a room made up completely of recycled Mardi Gras beads and the reflective mirrors from parking garages.

The bling bayou was super sparkly of course.

This whole room was hand painted.

The crawfish themed room had lots of fun photo opportunities and the coolest wallpaper.

The costume room had lots of cool stuff inspired by Carnival.

The garden of legends had huge statues of famous NOLA musicians, from Irma Thomas to Louis Armstrong to Lil Wayne and more.

JAMNOLA is a uniquely New Orleans experience full of color, joy, and music.

Rainy Day in Epcot

On January 19, 2020 By reneemarie31In Disney, Travel1 Comment

I don’t have a ton of Epcot pictures from this most recent trip. It was our last day and rainy, so we didn’t do everything. But we still had a good time.

We rope dropped Soarin’ which is one of my favorite rides. While in the Land, we got breakfast and rode Living with the Land. It’s cool to see all of the plants. I wish I had more success growing food.

We were trapped in the play area that you exit to from Spaceship Earth for awhile due to a torrential downpour, so my daughter and I played some of the games in there. We put the parts of the body together and powered a city with all kinds of energy!

In the World Showcase, I really liked the Anna and Elsa meet and greet set-up. The queue was full of cute and fun details.

We had some tasty fish and chips from Yorkshire County Fish Shop in Great Britain.

Even the squirrels agreed that the food there is top notch.

The Ralph and Vanellope meet and greet was cool because the characters come out of the “link” to meet you, just like in Ralph Breaks the Internet.

Of course, I have always had a soft spot for Journey Into Imagination and Figment. I visited Disney World as a baby and fell in love with “Bink” as I called him.

Overall, a fun trip to Disney World. I can’t wait until next time!

Animal Kingdom and Polynesian Luau

On January 18, 2020 By reneemarie31In Disney, Food, TravelLeave a comment

Our third day at Walt Disney World took us to the Animal Kingdom park and to the luau at the Polynesian resort. On our last trip to Disney World, we stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge and spent a lot of time at this park, so we did a shorter day there on this trip.

Dinoland is a great area of the park for young kids.

My daughter especially loves playing in the Boneyard play area.

I was super excited to catch sight of Kevin from Up more than once throughout the day!

The safari is always interesting and fun. Thankfully, we had a Fastpass, so we could fit it in on this busy park day.

I’ve still never been on Flight of Passage in Avatar since I don’t wait in 3 hour lines. Maybe one day we’ll get a fast pass. We did ride Na’vi River Journey again.

My daughter’s favorite ride is Kali River Rapids. We wore our ponchos, which we needed for the next day, anyway.

My daughter also got her face painted and a caricature drawn in the afternoon.

After we left the Animal Kingdom, we drove to the Polynesian Resort to attend the Spirit of Aloha luau. The luau is always a fun time. We didn’t make it to the end, because my daughter was falling asleep. It was a long day.

The food is delicious, although I didn’t take pictures of the tasty meat.

I had to go up with my daughter to learn the hula because she was being uncharacteristically shy.

Overall, another great day in the magical world of Disney.

Toy Story, Star Wars, and Mickey, Oh My!

On January 16, 2020 By reneemarie31In Disney, Food, TravelLeave a comment

Our second day on our recent Disney World trip was spent in Hollywood Studios. Due to the extreme popularity of the new Star Wars land – Galaxy’s Edge, we knew this would be our most crowded day. The park opened at 7am, and we had to be there early to be sure that we were in the park already when it opened so that we could get a boarding group for Rise of the Resistance. The new ride is so popular that the only way to ride is get a boarding group at park opening. I’m pretty sure all of the rides for the day were sold out in only a couple minutes on the day we were there.

In the dark, waiting for the park to officially open to get that boarding pass!

Rise of the Resistance is more than just a ride. It is an immersive experience that takes about twenty minutes. You are ushered to different areas to follow along with the story. The walk takes you inside and outside. You are on a special mission, and then eventually get captured by Kylo Ren and the Stormtroopers. It was a cool ride, even for those not as familiar with Star Wars.

Part of the experience is even being ordered around by the Imperial officers and the Stormtroopers.

Getting our boarding passes right at 7:00 on the dot, our boarding group was called around lunchtime. This was convenient, and we did not have to stay in the park all day to make sure we didn’t miss our chance to ride.

We decided not to wait in line for the other new ride in Galaxy’s Edge, Millennium Falcon – Smuggler’s Run. Maybe next time! We did do Star Tours, however, and explore the land.

We even got breakfast at Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo with all of its themed food. We had Mustafarian cinnamon rolls and Bright Suns breakfast platters. It was all tasty.

While my husband was excited to visit Galaxy’s Edge, I was most excited to see Toy Story Land! We skipped Hollywood Studios on our last Disney World trip, because so much of it was under construction for the two new lands. Toy Story Land opened a couple of months after our last visit to WDW.

The whole area is themed with bright colors and toys! It is very fun. I also loved how they had added some Christmas decorations in for the holidays.

We rode both of the new rides in Toy Story Land. Alien Swirling Saucers was our first ride of the day, so we didn’t have to wait long.

I also rode Slinky Dog Dash (even though I had my eyes closed). I am not a roller coaster person, and in all of my trips to Disney World I have never ridden on any of the mountains (Splash, Space, Big Thunder)! I know, I know, I’m a baby. I was excited about Slinky Dog though, because of the cute theme. It’s also cool because it goes all around the land.

We left the crowded park at mid-day to go back to the hotel and relax and swim. We returned in the evening to do a few attractions and see Fantasmic. I bought us tickets to the Fantasmic dessert VIP package so that we could have great seats without waiting in line. We sat front and center.

When you purchase the dessert package, you get a whole tray of desserts, a light up necklace, and a light up glass (with margarita inside)! Look at all of the tasty treats!

To me, the dessert package was worth it. We got more food than we could even eat, drinks, and great seats. This was the cheapest nighttime dessert package that I saw out of all the parks.

The show was awesome. It is full of fireworks, special effects, water, story, and characters!

And of course the light up cups were quite useful for a hotel disco dance party the next day!

Happy New Year in Magic Kingdom

On January 12, 2020 By reneemarie31In Disney, TravelLeave a comment

We started this new year and new decade off right, at Walt Disney World!

We went to the park first thing in the morning so that we could rope drop Seven Dwarves Mine Train. Crowds were heavy, but not too too bad, probably because so many people had stayed up late the night before.

playing with some of the cool extras in the Mine Train queue

I have never been to Disney World during the holidays before, so I was happy to see that many of the Christmas decorations were still up. I would love to come back before Christmas one year and attend Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas party.

Since it was New Year’s Day, we all wore matching Mickey Happy New Year’s shirts.

Since it was a busy day (and my husband is not a morning until night GoGoGoer like me), we did not get to do everything. That’s okay though since we are fortunate enough to be able to make it to Disneyworld once every couple years. We still managed to ride a few of my favorites.

Of course, some of the fun of Disney goes beyond the attractions to the little details and fun things lurking around every corner.

We didn’t stake out front row seats to the afternoon Festival of Fantasy parade, but were able to watch it from a distance in the green space at the end of Main street. The floats are fun to see.