Making Childhood Dreams Come True…

…for only a week’s pay!

Wednesday was the best day I’ve had all summer by a long shot – I FINALLY went to Harry Potter World!! Sheena and I left the trailer at 6am so that we could get there with plenty of time before the park opened (1.5 hour drive, park opens at 8am). Turns out the front gate opens before 8am, so people were already queuing up for the rides. Somehow at 8:15 there was already a 30 minute wait for the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride in Hogwarts castle. But I’m getting ahead of myself. When we entered the park, they scanned our tickets AND our fingerprints, which was interesting because that’s how they rent lockers. Each ride has a set of lockers by it, and you scan your fingerprint to unlock a locker. You get a certain amount of time for free (2 hours free at the Hogwarts ride, 4 hours free at the new Gringotts ride), and then it charges you after that. Then we had a long trek because Hogsmeade is at the back end of the Islands of Adventure park. Of course that’s where everyone was going, so we just followed the herd.

Eventually we got to the Hogsmeade entrance, and it was amazing!! We passed by Zonko’s Joke Shop, Honeydukes, Dervish and Banges, Ollivander’s, The Three Broomsticks, The Hog’s Head, The Owl Post, and the Hogwarts Express station to get to Diagon Alley. There were also display shops (just for show – couldn’t go inside), including Madam Puddifoot’s, Dogweed & Deathcap (Exotic Plants and Flowers), Tomes & Scrolls (Specialist Bookshop), and some others. And of course, after walking past all of the shops, Hogwarts castle is right in front of you! We weren’t even halfway down the street when I lost my cool (understatement of the year). I was darting from shop to shop taking pictures and peering inside trying to figure out where to start. At some point Sheena mentioned “quitches”, and I responded with something like, “Do you mean a snitch in quidditch? You don’t know anything!! How could I even come here with you!?” Of course, I was like 80% kidding, but it was that much funnier when we looked over and some guy waiting in line at Ollivander’s was laughing at me.

The first thing we did (besides freak out) was go to the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride in Hogwarts. Like I said, there was already a 30 minute wait at 8:15am, but it was a fantastic wait! The line snaked all throughout the castle, and we got to see a bunch of awesome and random things, like the colored jewels representing house points (Gryffindor was winning), moving portraits, the Sorting Hat, Dumbledore in his office, the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, and some other areas that I can’t remember. There was so much to see that Sheena started complaining that the line was moving too fast. Only time we said that all day. But that definitely seemed like the coolest place to have to wait in line. I definitely lost it when we saw Dumbledore sitting at his desk. As soon as we entered his office, I just yelled out, “IT’S DUMBLEDORE!!!!” and Sheena made fun of me for that all day. There were probably so many details that I missed, but it was wonderful!

Right outside the castle was a Flight of the Hippogriff ride. The line was short – maybe 20 minutes, and the ride was really short – under a minute? But you got a great view of the castle and Hogsmeade from it, plus Hagrid’s hut was right next to the line. After that we went on the Dragon Challenge ride, which was the first legitimate roller coaster that we did. They’re sneaky because they make you choose a dragon – the Chinese Fireball or the Hungarian Horntail, and they run on different tracks, so it’s *technically* two different rides, but we just went on the Chinese Fireball and called it good.

After that we went shopping at Honeyduke’s – so much candy!! I HAD to get a chocolate frog, and I opted for some Fizzing Whizzbees, too. Haven’t had the frog yet (they are massive, and $10 each), but the Fizzing Whizzbees are wild! It’s fly-shaped chocolates that are lightly fruit-flavored (cherry?), and there are super tiny Pop Rocks or something in there so that you can’t tell you’re eating them, but the chocolate fizzes in your mouth! It’s awesome! So glad I bought those. The even better part was that you can make your purchase and have them deliver it to the front gate for you to pick up on your way out. Don’t have to carry it with you all day and worry about it melting!

By then it was around 10:15, so we decided to pop in to The Three Broomsticks (will I ever be able to say that again??) for some food before the lunch rush hit. The woman in front of us saw us approaching and asked if we were getting breakfast because her two kids had wanted lunch instead, and her free breakfast tickets didn’t work for lunch (she must’ve had some fancy vacation package with all that stuff included). We DID want breakfast, so we each got a free meal! It was a good one to get for free, because it would’ve cost us $17 each for what is probably $8 at Denny’s. I got eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, a croissant, and BUTTERBEER!! (It was actually a totally reasonable amount of food – I was neither stuffed nor hungry, but I would’ve been super annoyed if I had to pay $17 for that meal.) The Butterbeer was delicious, like a caramel cream soda. We used the free breakfast to justify so many things the rest of the day.

After that we perused some gift shops and sent some postcards stamped by the Hogsmeade Owl Post! I was very good and didn’t buy a bunch of useless crap. I mean, I WOULD have if I was rich and could build a Harry Potter room in my currently non-existent house, but at the moment I don’t have a use for a $40 piece of wood (the wands were so beautiful, though). The wands were actually kind of cool – the interactive ones worked at designated locations throughout the two parks – you stand on a specific spot and wave the wand in a specific way and candles light up, or machinery starts working, or water shoots out of a fountain, or a bunch of other random things. It was fun to watch people doing it though. The robes were another thing. Lots of people bought robes and wore them around. I understand the appeal of wearing wizard’s robes in Harry Potter World, but I was dripping with sweat by 8:30am and I was in shorts and a t-shirt. Black robes over your clothes at 2pm while a dragon breathes fire at you sounds torturous. And the poor employees – they have to dress according to whatever station they are working at, and some of them had to wear what looked like three layers of clothing in marginally air conditioned areas. But in general the costumes were all really fun.

By that point we had done everything there was to do in Hogsmeade, so we took the Hogwarts Express over to Diagon Alley! (It seems like I’m using a lot of exclamation points in the post, but I’m understating a lot of my excitement. You can only imagine what I was like in real life.) The Hogwarts Express and Diagon Alley are the new additions that opened up at the beginning of July. You can only go on the Hogwarts Express if you have a park-to-park pass, since Diagon Alley is in Universal Studios and Hogsmeade is in Islands of Adventure. (Some genius made a fortune off of that idea. Even if you did one park on one day and the other on another day, unless you get the park-to-park pass, you wouldn’t be able to ride the train. Who would go to Harry Potter World and not want to ride the Hogwarts Express?) Anyways, we took a ride on the Hogwarts Express! They send you into compartments in groups of 8, and during the ride they have shadows passing by in the hallway (Harry, Ron, and Hermione make an appearance), and they show the scenery outside the “window”. It’s pretty cool! Plus it’s a nice and cushy ride. Too bad it’s not longer.

We arrived at Platform 9 ¾ but didn’t see a whole lot of it. (We’d get the full experience on the way back). When we left King’s Cross we saw the Knight Bus with Stan Shunpike! From there we actually didn’t know where to go – Diagon Alley is as hidden as it’s supposed to be. You have to pass by Grimmauld Place and walk around some random brick passageway and then – OH MY GOD IT’S DIAGON ALLEY!!! Just as in Hogsmeade there are a ton of shops that line the street straight to Gringotts, but it’s more than just the one street – there’s a loop that goes off on the right past more shops and The Hopping Pot pub, and another that branches off left of Gringotts and takes you through Knockturn Alley. Some of the shops in Diagon Alley include The Leaky Cauldron, Ollivander’s (same shop in both parks), Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes, Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions, Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour, Wiseacre’s Wizarding Equipment, The Hopping Pot, Borgin and Burkes, and lots of display shops. We started in Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes and saw a bunch of the stuff from the books, like Fainting Fancies, Puking Pastilles, U-No-Poo, Fever Fudge, Nosebleed Nougat, Skiving Snackboxes, some of the same candies from Honeydukes, and lots of little toys and joke stuff. It was so colorful and crazy and had some random, fun things, like a toy unicyclist on a tightrope balancing cauldrons riding over the shop. So perfect.

From there we stopped at The Hopping Pot for some drinks to wander around with (we DID get a free breakfast…). I got Dragon Scale beer (a new brew they offer which was really good) and Sheena got Fishy Green Ale (a mint flavored drink with blueberry boba-like balls – a bit on the sweet side). After that we just wandered around a bit and popped into some shops, took pictures of the display shops, and admired the dragon on Gringotts from all angles (and watched him breathe fire!). We found an awesome little hang-out, actually - the Owl Emporium! The emporium is just a room that's attached to a gift shop and has a snaking chain running through it, we think for the massive lines to buy things during the opening? Anyways, the lines were no where near long enough to require the extra space, so the emporium was just an empty room with owl cages hanging from the ceiling. What better place to take a break from the crowds and the walking?! We just chilled in there for a good 15 minutes, and people kept peeking in to see what was inside - nothing exciting, just two girls drinking under some owls! After finishing our drinks, we moseyed into Knockturn Alley to check out Borgin and Burkes. Oh yeah, so most of these buildings were super dark because they’re authentically lit with “candle” light, but Knockturn Alley was ridiculously dark, it being a place for dark wizards and such. You could easily think it was nighttime in there, and were subsequently blinded when you stepped back onto Diagon Alley. Anyways, Borgin and Burkes was pretty cool – another gift shop, but with lots of dark magic things that none of the other shops had. There was an interactive wand spot in Knockturn Alley where a projector was cycling through skeletons of different creatures. Waving your wand made the skeletons dance!

We checked the wait time for the new ride, Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts (150 minutes), found out that the Single Rider line was closed for the time being, and decided to explore the rest of the park and come back later. (By “the rest of the park” I mean the other attractions not relating to Harry Potter. Easy to forget that the place isn’t actually “Harry Potter World”, but just a small part of a huge park.) When we left Diagon Alley we stopped to look at the map and figure out what other rides there actually were. A park employee named Miguel peered over my shoulder and asked what we were looking for. We said we didn’t know, so he just told us all of our options, described the rides, and gave us recommendations. He asked if we had an Express Pass ($100 more to wait in slightly shorter lines), and we said no, but he said, “Don’t worry, I got you covered”. Then he radioed over to the person in charge of the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit roller coaster (the ride with the longest wait in that half of the park), and requested that our party of two be granted access to the Express Lane. Heck yes!!! When we got over there, we went into the Express Line and eventually came to a guy scanning tickets to make sure everyone was allowed to be in that line. This couple 10 people in front of us said they left their tickets in their locker and didn’t want to go get them, and the guy with the scanner had to argue with them a while before the ride manager or whoever came over and escorted them out. Sheena and I just looked at each other thinking there was no way this guy would believe that Miguel radioed us permission into the Express Lane (he had talked to a woman, and this was a guy). But as soon as we started explaining that Miguel called, the guy gave us a big grin and said, “Go right ahead”. Maybe that was the Flirting-got-you-the-Express-Lane grin, but our potential 90 minute wait turned into a 20 minute wait. Thanks, Miguel! After that we did the Twister experience (only a 5 minute wait, so why not). HOW is that still a ride?? The movie came out in the 80s! Then we went on The Mummy, where we waited in the Single Rider line and saved a bit of time (45 minutes instead of 70, maybe?). At that point we were super hot, so Sheena got Dippin’ Dots and I got a frozen mojito. The mojito was a good choice because it allowed us to sit in shade at a little bar with few people around, instead of on the ground next to a crowd full of children. It was basically us and a lot of dads.

We decided that it had been too long since parting with Harry Potter, so we went back into Diagon Alley and stopped by the Escape from Gringotts ride again. The wait was still 150 minutes, but they opened up the Single Rider line, so we opted to wait in that (only 120 minutes). The unfortunate thing was that I think we missed a lot of the decorations inside Gringotts – our line just went down a plain hallway, up a winding staircase, and onto the ride. It was a very short distance, but the line moved at a glacial pace. It almost would’ve been better to have a much longer line that moved more so you didn’t feel totally hopeless. [Yes, after searching online we DEFINITELY missed a bunch of stuff inside Gringotts. If you ever go on that ride, DON’T take the short cut!! (Whatever, we got a free breakfast…)] Anyways, the ride was really fun, and I got to sit in the front row!

After leaving Gringotts we noticed that there was no line at Ollivander’s, so we popped in to finally check out that experience (you can’t go in the shop unless you wait in line for the experience first; it’s fun, but when we first showed up the wait was 45 minutes). You go through the many rooms of the shop with the walls stacked floor to ceiling with wands. Incredible how extensive it all is. Then you meet Ollivander and he picks someone to test out wands. They get a couple of bad ones that make random things happen in the shop, and then the right one picks them! They don’t give that person the wand, but they take them aside after and make them feel obligated to buy it since “that is the wand that chose them and no other wand will work as well”. Who knows, if they had picked me I might’ve bought it. I did get a free breakfast…

By that point we had done everything in Diagon Alley, so we went to King’s Cross, walked onto Platform 9 ¾, and rode the Hogwarts Express back to Hogsmeade! Since this time we were traveling in the opposite direction, they changed the “view” outside, which was pretty cool. One of the guys in our compartment asked how long we waited for the Escape from Gringotts ride because he actually works there, and he said that 2 hours was really good (if only we’d seen the REAL inside!). Once in Diagon Alley, we popped back into the Three Broomsticks for some dinner – Cornish pasties and pumpkin juice for me! The pumpkin juice was really delicious – had a bit of spice in it so it tasted like cider, but cold, refreshing cider. Sheena and I were waffling about it at first because it had the potential to be really weird, but the woman taking our order went and got us a free cup so we could try it first! Super nice of her to do. At that point it was around 7:30pm, so we decided to finally make our way out of the park. We passed by Dr. Seuss land and had to go on the merry-go-round, as well as the Jurassic Park water ride. Then we picked up our candy at the front gate and finally left around 8:15pm. We spent over 12 hours at the park and were EXHAUSTED! I got nearly 8 hours of sleep that night and I was still dead on my feet the next day. You know you’re getting old when it takes a day to recover from a theme park. But it was a REALLY EXCITING day!! I’ve been in Florida for nearly 6 months, and I finally made it to Harry Potter world just 10 days before leaving. But hey, it means I got to see the addition (even if I didn’t actually see Gringotts). I guess I’ll have to come back another time!