My friend and I headed to Universal around 11am, and since she was already an annual passholder, we got free parking!
Universal, like Disney, has multiple amusement parks that you have to purchase separate tickets or park hopper passes for. Thankfully, with the annual pass, we could park hop all we wanted!
We decided to go to Islands of Adventure first.
Headed the entrance
My proof of temporary residency in Florida
AHHH finally inside!!!
Of course we had to go into a Christmas store first, and who was there to greet us right at the door? A statue of the Grinch!!!!! and of course Max, too!
You can see Hogwarts in the distance!!!!!!!!!!!!
This was the first ride we decided to go on. My friend doesn't actually ride rollercoasters with big drops, but she loves simulated rides, so we rode all of those!
Check the fancy specs!
Hey Spidey!
OMG CAPTAIN AMERICA!!! I was totally fan girling over him. Didn't actually get to meet him though. (side not: fan girling means I was way too excited to see him because he's my favorite!)
Next we walked through another part of the park. They had some cute stores and rides, mainly water ones that we didn't want to go on.
I felt like I had stepped into some comic books or the old cartoons I used to watch at my grandma's house!
He's right behind me.....isn't he?
Freaking out!!!!!!!
This is where we studied some eggs to see what was growing inside them. The first one I examined ended up being a T-Rex. I wanted to destroy it haha
Another scary dinosaur lol
We entered Jurassic Park through the other entrance, and we saw this when we exited. I loved it!!!
OK...So the next few pictures are going to attempt to capture my excitement on FINALLY getting to visit Hogsmeade and HOGWARTS!!!!
For those of you who are unaware of those two locations, they are from the AMAZING Harry Potter Series. Hogwarts is where all the witches and wizards go to school, and Hogsmeade is the little town outside of Hogwarts that the students like to visit on their time off from classes.
Walking into Hogsmeade!!!!!
EEEEEP!
THERE IT IS!!!!!!!!! THE SCHOOL I WOULD LOVE TO GO TO (that is, if it actually existed).
Up close!
WALKING INTO HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY!!!!
There is a ride inside of Hogwarts. It was a little intense when I rode it the first time...probably because I rode it ALONE (my friend was stopped for her sling on her arm and I was forced to continue onto the ride). Each cart holds four people....I was seriously the only person in the cart!!!!!
Just a heads up: what I'm about to say after this might not make sense to a lot of you if you haven't seen any of the Harry Potter movies. But for the sake of my sanity and so you don't have to read a ridiculous amount of text, I'm going to assume that all of you have some sort of knowledge of HP and what all it entails. Here we go....
When you first get onto the ride, you're in the Room of Requirements. Hermione Granger casts a spell that causes the cart to start "flying." You fly through another room to go meet Harry and Ron. As you're flying with Harry and Ron, a dragon begins to chase all of you. You end up "crashing" back into Hogwarts, but the dragon has landing right above you on the roof and is trying to crash in to get you. The dragon ends up right in your face and breathes "fire" (aka smoke and a red light) into your face. Luckily you get away without a scratch, but you end up in the forest out behind Hagrid's house. If you remember, this forest was filled with spiders. There are spiders EVERYWHERE! Luckily Hermione saves you, but not soon enough. You end up in the Womping Willow Tree. Once you're able to escape the tree's clutches, you go to the Quidditch field where Gryffindor and Slytherin are competing. You see the snitch and try to catch it with Harry, but then Dementors show up! You're knocked through the ground into the Chamber of Secrets. Dementors are everywhere, trying to "suck away your soul." One gets very close, but Harry comes to the rescue with his "Expecto Patronum" spell! This allows us to get away from the Dementors and fly safely back to the Great Hall at Hogwarts, where everyone is waiting to cheer for you and Dumbledore himself invites you to come back to Hogwarts anytime.
That's the entire ride for you guys.
Now get on down here and ride it!!! It's a lot better in person than in this silly blog!
After we rode the ride, we decided to walk through Hogsmeade and check it out.
Whenever the witches and wizards are at Hogwarts, it's usually winter, so that explains all the snow everywhere.
We went into this Owl Post. I bought a postcard for my bestest friend, who is a huge Harry Potter fan, and I was able to write on the postcard and mail it straight from Hogsmeade. They even stamped it with the official Hogsmeade Owl Post stamp to prove that it came straight from there.
Owls in the Harry Potter movies are the mail deliverers for witches and wizards.
Want a wand?
Thankfully these brooms were tied down or else they would have taken off!
THE THREE BROOMSTICKS! We didn't get to eat here....
...We did, however, buy some pumpkin juice! It was apple juice mixed with pumpkin puree and a dash of cinnamon! It was REALLLY yummy.
The Hogwarts Express!
Had to take a selfie!
This is the guy who sold me my postcard for my bestest friend and mailed it to her!
Hogsmeade's other entrance
Look at that REDS FAN I FOUND!!!!!!
The conductor!
Students from other schools like to come visit Hogwarts, especially during the Tri-Wizard Cup. This visit, they decided to sing for the crowd. We missed the singing.
Oh, by the way, here's my annual pass! Free parking, no block-out dates, discounts on food and merchandise, etc.? AND it pays itself off within two visits?! I'LL TAKE IT!
Found a mandrake! Always cover your ears around them or else you'll pass out!
Getting ready to hop on the Hogwarts Express to head back to London and Diagon Alley
Walking up the steps that lead to the entrance to the train!
THERE IT IS!!!!!!!!!
Too excited to be riding in a train car just like Harry, Hermione, and Ron!!!
"Steam" coming from the train. The cool thing about this train is that it actually makes it look like you're leaving Hogwarts and all of your friends are telling you good-bye through the window. The other side also makes it look like Harry, Ron, and Hermione are walking by outside of your train compartment and chit-chatting away! Again, you HAVE to come experience this for yourself because me telling you about it doesn't do it justice!!
Hogwarts Express
The Weasley twins seeing us off...
...again...
...telling us to go visit their new shop in Diagon Alley
SEE?!?!?! They're really walking by!!!
Ok...maybe it's not ACTUALLY them, but it seems so real!
We made it to London on the train!
Mad-Eye Moody greeting us at the train station, 9 3/4!
Headed out of the train station. Here's our "luggage."
The Knight Bus
Where the Ministry of Magic meets...
Creature is in the window!!!!!!!! Silly house elf!
Walking through the wall to get from London to Diagon Alley
WE MADE IT!!!!! This is Diagon Alley, where all witches and wizards get their required things before leaving for Hogwarts. Robes, books, wands, owls, etc. can all be found here!
The Weasley Twins' store!
The dragon that is normally kept in the very base of the vaults in the bank...but Harry, Ron, and Hermione used him to escape from there!
My very first butterbeer! Don't worry, there's no alcohol in it. It's pretty good, but not something I'm dying to get again.
Getting ready to try it!!
My friend and I shared a meal. I got a fisherman's pie with different types of seafood in it, and she got one that had sausage and veggies in it. Both are baked with mashed potatoes on top...YUM! the salad was also yummy.
I pulled a Hermione Granger and kept a butterbeer mustache! That foam is SUPER thick!
We walked inside the Weasley Twins' shop, but didn't buy anything. It looks like it came straight from the movie!
Alright, so I caught a lot of grief over me wearing my Disney celebration buttons to Universal, so the lady working in the Quidditch store gave me Universal ones! Why she gave me a birthday one, I'll never know, but hey! I'll wear it!!
Knockturn Alley is where all the bad witches and wizards shop. Bad ones like Bellastrix Lestrange and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (although fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself -- thanks Hermione --, so...) VOLDEMORT!
I love this shirt!
Tom Riddle's Diary from the Chamber of Secrets movie. This was selling for FIFTY DOLLARS!! I was too scared to buy it for fear that Tom would end up talking to me through it like he did in the movie....
The Deathly Hallows -- The Elder Wand, The Resurrection Stone, and The Invisibility Cloak
Another Horcrux
And another!
This is the necklace that Katie touched in the movie and ended up becoming possessed (or something like that)...this part of the movie freaked me out.
Want to dress like the Dark Lord himself? Here's his robes!
This is also from the movie. It's a Vanishing Cabinet. Whatever goes inside it ends up going to the sister of it, which is located in the Room of Requirement at Hogwarts!
The dragon on top of Gringotts Bank. He actually breathes fire every now and then!
We went into Olivander's Wand Shop!!!
A wand typically chooses who is going to own it, but since I didn't get chosen to do the demonstration with Olivander himself, I had to choose my wand. I did actually buy a wand. It is made of Reed, and that is a description of it.
I'm not sure if these are real wands from the movies, but they ARE the wands of different characters.
THE ELDER WAND
After buying my wand, my friend and I headed to Gringotts Bank so I could ride the ride there. She didn't want to join, but was able to walk through the line with me until I got onto the cart.
Escape from Gringotts!
MY WAND BAG!!!
I just realized that "Artifacts" is spelled wrong on this sign, but besides that, Gringotts is supposed to be the safest place on Earth!
Inside the bank
Gremlins are the bank tellers and protectors of the vaults at Gringotts.
HUGE Chandeliers!!
An open vault, which can only be opened by gremlins.
We took an elevator "9 miles down" to get to the vaults.
After the ride, we went to talk to a gremlin who actually talks back to you when you ask it questions. I didn't ask it anything because he was making a fool of my friend, so there was no way I was going to be made a fool! HaHa!
You can exchange a $10 or $20 for non-muggle money (muggles are non-magical people)
This is the gremlin that talks to you
Bye-Bye Diagon Alley!
Oh, this is the Quidditch store I went into. I bought a Gryffindor lanyard and a keychain to hold my annual pass in!
After we left Harry Potter World, we decided to finish up our trip by walking through the rest of the second park, which is called Universal Studios.
First, we stopped in the world of The Simpsons and rode a ride there. It was also simulated, but felt pretty real minus being a cartoon.
Here is Krustyland:
No one can go to The Simpson's area and NOT get a "DOH"-nut!
This was probably my favoritest simulated ride. It was very intense and fun!
We also rode Minion Mayhem, but it wasn't too exciting.
Super cute drawings by Gru's adopted little girls.
Gru talking to us!
After Minion Mayhem, we walked back towards the Transformers area because there was alarms going off meaning that a character was about to come out and take pictures with the crowd!
Lucky for us, it was BUMBLEBEE from Transformers!!!!!!!! He's my absolute favorite!!!
Duh another selfie!!!!!
POSE!
This is the only pin I could bring myself to buy that wasn't a Disney pin. It stands for "Dumbledore's Army" and has everyone's signature that was a part of it in the movie.
Sorry this took so long to post. I hope you guys enjoyed reading about "the other amusement park in Orlando!"
Keep an eye out for more blog posts to come!!!
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