On Monday (February 25th) we headed over to Universal Studios (Islands of Adventure) to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Being the Harry Potter nerds that we are, we couldn't be that close and not go!
We arranged for a bus to pick us up outside our hotel at 9:00. They said it would be a 35-40 minute ride, but they neglected to mention that they would be stopping at half a dozen other Disney hotels before we got on our way. It ended up taking more like an hour and a half which wouldn't have been a big deal except that I was supposed to feed (nurse) Peyton at 10:00, so the last half hour was particularly fun with a screaming baby girl who wanted to be fed!
However as soon as we walked into Hogsmeade, all that frustration melted away. I have to give them props, they really did an excellent job with it all.
It was fun just to walk around and see things like Ollivanders...
Owl Post...
And Hogwarts everywhere you looked!
We really lucked out on the rides. I don't know if this is always the case, but with child swap, they didn't make us wait at all for Dragon Challenge and Flight of the Hippogriff.
Corbyn was tall enough to ride Flight of the Hippogriff, so he got to ride with both of us. It was more intense than any of the rides he could do at Disney World, but he surprised us by liking it as long as we held him close.
We did have to wait for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, but we didn't mind because it was fun walking through the castle and seeing all the details they included - like the house point hourglasses.
We had lunch at the Three Broomsticks. The food was really very good and the Butterbeer was amazing - probably our favorite part of the whole experience!
We didn't want to wait in the long line to go into Ollivanders (although I'm sure it would have been cool), but we couldn't leave without at least holding a wand. They had a table set up outside with different wands, so we stopped for a quick photo opp.
We went into Honeydukes and let Corbyn pick out some candy. The kids were good sports seeing as how they don't care about Harry Potter (yet), so we figured we could at least get a treat.
We arranged for a bus to pick us up outside our hotel at 9:00. They said it would be a 35-40 minute ride, but they neglected to mention that they would be stopping at half a dozen other Disney hotels before we got on our way. It ended up taking more like an hour and a half which wouldn't have been a big deal except that I was supposed to feed (nurse) Peyton at 10:00, so the last half hour was particularly fun with a screaming baby girl who wanted to be fed!
However as soon as we walked into Hogsmeade, all that frustration melted away. I have to give them props, they really did an excellent job with it all.
It was fun just to walk around and see things like Ollivanders...
Owl Post...
And Hogwarts everywhere you looked!
We really lucked out on the rides. I don't know if this is always the case, but with child swap, they didn't make us wait at all for Dragon Challenge and Flight of the Hippogriff.
Corbyn was tall enough to ride Flight of the Hippogriff, so he got to ride with both of us. It was more intense than any of the rides he could do at Disney World, but he surprised us by liking it as long as we held him close.
We did have to wait for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, but we didn't mind because it was fun walking through the castle and seeing all the details they included - like the house point hourglasses.
We had lunch at the Three Broomsticks. The food was really very good and the Butterbeer was amazing - probably our favorite part of the whole experience!
We didn't want to wait in the long line to go into Ollivanders (although I'm sure it would have been cool), but we couldn't leave without at least holding a wand. They had a table set up outside with different wands, so we stopped for a quick photo opp.
We went into Honeydukes and let Corbyn pick out some candy. The kids were good sports seeing as how they don't care about Harry Potter (yet), so we figured we could at least get a treat.
After we finished our Harry Potter experience, we had a little time to kill before our bus came to pick us up at 3:00. We didn't care about any of the other stuff at Universal, so we just stopped in the Dr. Seuss area and let the kids play on a car/bike thingy they had there.
It was a magical morning/afternoon at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!
It was a magical morning/afternoon at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!
2 comments:
Harry Potter looks absolutely amazing and i'm not even that big a fan!
What, no Jurrasic Park??????????
It snowed there but doesn't even look cold - hehe
Love the photos and it is a very impressive place even if I don't know much about Harry Potter!
Post a Comment