Day 5-Harry Potter!

Oh my gosh, are you as tired of these vacation posts as I am?  I’m sorry.  I must push forward with them for the whole family record thing blah blah blah, but I promise there’s only one more after this one.  So…

When Universal opened their Harry Potter section in their Islands of Adventure theme park a few years ago, I knew that someday we would go there.  Maddie, Ben, and I are huge Harry Potter fans. 

[Please, if you haven’t read the books, I am begging you to do so. Why haven’t you read them?  Do you think you’re above reading a book aimed at children?  Are you too intellectual for fantasy literature?  Are you too busy exercising your body to exercise your mind?  Get over all of that and get started.  Now!]

I did my research on the park ahead of time.  One source told me that even now, two years after its initial opening, the HP section is so popular that they must sometimes deny entry to some guests, or give them raincheck-like passes to return at another time.  Excellent mother that I am,  I knew I couldn’t let this happen to us, so I chose the day Undercover Tourist said would be the best, and we got to the park about 30 minutes before it opened.  We parked in the first row of the parking garage, then once we passed through the front gate, we raced to the Harry Potter section!  We were so excited when we saw it for the first time!  It’s absolutely stunning!

The photo above was taken when we first arrived…

The photo below was taken mid-morning!  Note the crowd!

Maddie, Ben, and I headed straight to Hogwarts for Harry Potter’s Forbidden Journey.  There was no line, so we moved quickly through the castle, but I wish we had gone slower, there were so many things to see, the detail was astounding to Harry Potter geeks fans like us!  We passed through Dumbledore’s Office and saw the pensieve, the Gryffindor common room, Professor Sprout’s green house, the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, etc.  It truly looked like the real thing (not that the real thing is real…).

The ride itself left the kids excitedly breathless and me a little sick (I’m prone to vertigo if I turn my head the wrong way, also I had to keep my eyes closed for some of the ride.)  It’s not a coaster, more of a simulator ride, wherein you are to imagine you are riding on a broomstick with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. As soon as we got off we joined Dave and Jack (who had ridden Flight of the Hippogriff—very tame coaster, Jack loved it) and Dave and I switched places.  He rode Forbidden Journey with the big kids while Jack and I did Flight of the Hippogriff three times.  Dave loved the ride a lot more than I did.

View from the top of Flight of the Hippogriff.

We also rode the Dragon Challenge twice with no waiting (I’m telling you…get there early!).  This was an excellent, smooth roller coaster, similar to  The Great Bear at Hersheypark.

Then it was time for some shopping in Honeydukes, where the Maddie bought a Chocolate Frog, we went through Zonko’s and saw some of Fred and George’s inventions, and then we waited in line at Ollivander’s Wand Shop for about 20 minutes.  Yes.  We waited in line to get into a shop!  But customers are only allowed in 25 at a time, where a small show is put on for you before you shop:  one of the children in the group is picked to pretend to be a Hogwarts student trying out their new wand for the first time.  It was really cool, but very short after such a long wait.

Here is Ollivander, finding the right wand for the chosen girl.

Afterwards, we looked at wands, but didn’t buy any.  They were very authentic looking though, and boxes are labeled so you know whose wand you’re buying (Snape’s, Voldemort’s, Dumbledore’s, Harry’s, etc.)

Ben tests out a wand.

We had lunch at The Three Broomsticks!  Maddie chose this as her special meal for her hard work in the Spelling Bee.  Apparently, J.K. Rowling was very picky about what she wanted the Three Broomsticks to serve.  No soda, for one thing.  And the food was very English, including items such as pasties, shepherd’s pie, and fish and chips.

And Butterbeer!

Maddie loved it!

Ben and Jack liked it, but didn’t like the foam.  I had to scoop that off for each of them.

Then it was time to check out other areas of Islands of Adventure.  I took Jack through the Seuss area, while Dave rode The Hulk coaster with the big kids.

Jack met the Grinch and then we walked into a book store and found The Cat in the Hat hiding standing all alone in the book section!  You could just tell he wanted some company.  He was probably so bored not having a bunch of little kids hanging all over him like I’m sure he usually has…

So Jack read to him!

            Look at the Cat’s face!  You can tell he is enthralled with my baby’s reading! 

Afterwards, we joined Dave and the big kids and it was my turn for The Hulk.  It was awesome!  Then we walked through the Toon Lagoon section, where Maddie tried desperately to stop Marmaduke from running away…

And then Dave and the kids rode a bunch of water rides, while Jack and I played at the Camp Jurassic Playground (well, Jack played, and I mostly sat).  This is the best playground EVER and Jack could have spent hours here.  Eventually, we went looking for everyone else though.  We tried squirting them when they went by us on the Bilge Rat Barges.

Looks like they all got their ponchos on okay.  Hmph.

Really, an awesome day was had by all.

Tomorrow:  Last  Vacation Post (It’s rude to cheer.  I can hear you, you know).  Disney’s Hollywood Studios coming up, detailing, among other things, some of us being stuck at the top of a major, scary ride!