As a family who loves to travel, being cooped up in our home has been a challenge. Our last trip was to Florida in October, which is one of our favourite destinations.  We especially love Universal Studios because we are all major Harry Potter fans, as well as movie lovers in general. In addition to that, Universal’s Volcano Bay Water Park is one of the best water theme parks we have ever visited.

During our trip in October, we stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel for easy access to Universal Studios, which is ideal if you want to get there before the park gets crowded. The hotel is located close to Universal so that you can retreat to the pool when the Florida afternoon heat gets to be too much. We would also go back to the park sometimes in the evening when the crowds thinned out.

Looking back through our photos in Florida, we decided to recreate some pictures we took in and around Universal in Orlando in front of a greenscreen as a lark. It’s cold in London right now and no one wanted to get real water splashed onto them! But where do you get a green screen? Zoom, which has been our lifeline while we stay at home, came to the rescue.

From Orlando to Home

We had a fairly simple setup that you can recreate at home. Everyone is on Zoom nowadays as the best way to communicate with a group right now is via video chat. If you click on the settings in Zoom, you can create a virtual background. I use virtual backgrounds a lot because my house is a mess now that all of us are at home all of the time. You can upload your own virtual backgrounds onto Zoom, which is how we recreated the Orlando backdrops we needed, like a pool and a science lab.

Playing in the Pool

Our first photo was the easiest to recreate because it just involved my son and daughter by the hotel pool. It looks like my daughter is asking my son to come back to play! She loves the water and can stay in a pool for hours on end.

You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat

The second photo is near Universal’s San Francisco area, and features the shark from the movie Jaws. Originally my husband and I didn’t want to show our children Jaws because it was so scary for us when we were kids - but our kids laughed through the whole thing! They were super unimpressed with the special effects, which are fairly basic by today’s standards. Jaws still remains one of their favourite comedy movies.

The Dog Days Aren’t Over

This third photo is from when we went to one of the shows at Universal Studios that displays all of the tricks the animal actors, which include dogs, cats and birds, can do. They were super well-trained and absolutely adorable.

Suffice to say our dog is NOT an animal actor and really refused to cooperate. Trying to get her to even sit in front of the green screen was a challenge. Although this photo is the worst recreation of the original photo, we had the most fun making it!

The Star of the Show

The fourth photo is something my kids LOVE. We were at one of the other shows at Universal Studios – the special effects show. I got called up to participate in the show even though I made sure we were not sitting at the front. My kids were howling with laughter at my face when they picked me. I really hate being on stage but managed to make it through that show!

We recreated this photo with my kids as the two special effects guys who called me onto the stage. This was probably the hardest photo to emulate because it required the most props. 

That’s my son in his school blazer because that’s the only jacket he has! My daughter just used an oversized white shirt for a lab coat.

Recreating photos at home has helped us make some new memories and reminded us of good times past. The process doesn’t really require much effort and we had fun trying to be creative with the ‘sets’. You will, however, need someone who is not in the photo to help you take the picture. Now we really can’t wait to go back to Universal Studios and Florida once travelling is allowed again! 

Which photo do you think is the best? Which holiday of yours do you think you can recreate at home? Let me know in the comments!