The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Sorry for the delay in blogging. I have been trying to upload pictures for a week and ended up having to buy more memory space and then it wouldn't post to my account so I could use it. After exchanging some emails with google, I finally got it resolved this morning...yeah! So here is a continuation of our Florida trip.

Our second day, (Tuesday) we spent in Universal's Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  We are big fans of Harry Potter.  Eric and I have both read all the books and we own all the movies.  Jesikah LOVES Harry Potter and has read the books several times.  Alex was never that into it, but he read a couple of the books and he still enjoyed the movies.  Tessa and Jarem have seen some of the movies.  Everyone was very excited!  This was probably the thing we were looking forward to the most about our Florida trip!!

When you first enter the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the Hogwart's Express is the first thing you see.

Here is the amazing castle.  There were throngs of people, so I took this picture above everyone's heads.  It is really huge and incredible.  You can't help but feel like you really are part of the Harry Potter world while you are there.  It is incredibly accurate to the movies and books down to the very small details.  The most popular ride is in the castle.  It is a broomstick ride.  To get to the ride, you walk all through the castle.  Throughout the castle, you see important rooms and items from the books.  The ride was amazingly real.  We got there early and went to this ride first as soon as the park opened.  We walked right on without any wait.

Walking down the street in Hogsmeade

The Three Broomsticks

Even though it was only 10 oclock, we were already hungry, so we decided to get some food at the Three Broomsticks

The menu

Here everyone is tasting their butter beer.  The frozen butter beer is REALLY good.  It tastes a lot like a slushy cream soda with a butterscotch foamy head...YUMMM!!

Jesikah with the foam on her lip

The feast: it entailed a delicious salad, lots of grilled vegies and corn on the cob as well as BBQ pork ribs and BBQ chicken quarters.  It was really good...and everyone enjoyed it.

Jesikah and Uncle Kyle enjoying ribs while Aunt Jessica has a chicken quarter.

Alex loves sweet drinks, so it was amazing at the end of his meal that his entire butterbeer remained untouched.  He was pretty proud of that.

Dogweed and Deathcap had creepy things in the window

Of course we had to visit Honeydukes candy shop.  This is a picture of the front with people we don't know entering.

Jarem loved the candy store the most.  He couldn't stop asking all day when we would be going back.

Cute little spiral staircase in the candy shop

Other decor

Here you can see Bertie Botts every flavor beans.  Alex bought some of those and the kids enjoyed finding the nasty ones like earwax and etc.

Attached to the candy shop was the joke/game shop.  We had fun looking at things there.

Everyone bought something at the candy store.  I bought a chocolate frog and pumpkin juice.  I really like the pumpkin juice.

Another view of the castle

Here we were waiting in line to get into Ollivander's wand shop.  It was the longest line we waited in.  It's crazy how people will wait to get into the shops.

While we waited, we saw Gilderoy Lockhart's book collection in the window display

Another angle of the castle

Across the way was Maestro's where they had musical instruments displayed in the upstairs windows

I don't remember what Eric was reacting to here

In Ollivander's wand shop, they did a demonstration of wand selection.  Two kids were chosen and the shop owner demonstrated how to find the best wand for each one.  The effects were pretty neat when they chose the wrong one.  Things actually fell and flowers drooped.  When the right one was picked, of course, we had the magical music.  It was neat and worth the wait. 

Jesikah had been saving her money, and decided to buy a wand.  Kyle and Jessica also purchased wands and even got one for Eric.  There were real wands to the ceiling of this place stacked everywhere.  It looked so much like the movie.

The owlery...look closely and you can see the owls

The flying car with blinking lights and sounds

Hagrid's Hut

Jarem next to the front door

A cool roof on one of the buildings

I took so many pictures of the castle because it was so beautiful

This mirror was in the castle.  It is from the 1st book when Harry sees his parents in here.

A view from inside the Herbology area of the castle

Beads for the different houses

Bronze statue of the phoenix in the castle

Room in the castle with real moving and talking pictures.  It had pictures to the top of the room on all 4 walls.

This is Dumbledore's Office.  It was difficult to get a good picture of this.  There was a hologram of Dumbledore on the top balcony that moved and talked.  It was pretty amazing.  You should be able to see it vaguely if you look closely.  This was the last room before you get on the ride.  We went on this ride twice...once when we first got there and we walked on, and the second time later in the afternoon and waited about 45 minutes, but got a better view of the castle and this time I kept my camera to get pictures.

This was the defense against the dark arts ride.  Here Hermoine, Ron, and Harry are standing on the balcony telling about the broom ride we are about to go on.  Again, they were holograms

This is a look at the Dragon Challenge Ride.  Eric, Kyle, Tessa, and I went on it the first time, and then Jesikah decided to go with Tessa soTessa went again.  It was pretty intense.  There are two dragons and you can choose the one you want, then they race.  It is like a rollercoaster with the track above you instead of below.  You go in loops and upside down several times.  It was exhilarating, but I felt dizzy for a bit afterwards.

Even though we had a ticket for the day to Universal Theme Park, we spent the whole day in The Harry Potter World.  Alex actually saw one of his friends from school here.  By about 5pm, we were tired, and headed back home.  It was a fun, fun day.