Harry Potter World...Alohomora!!!!
First stop on our vacation: HARRY POTTER WORLD! Yes...it was worth the almost $100 per person! There was something VERY cool about being in the place from your favorite books/movies! (Brian didn't go - he doesn't like the books & had little interest, so it wasn't worth the $100 for him to complain all day! So he dropped us off, ran errands and enjoyed a quiet afternoon at the hotel.)
Our only criticism of the park, was that we wished it was bigger! So many options - it really could have been it's own park. The butterbeer was AMAZING! (We had a couple of them.) We all really liked the pumpkin juice as well! Blake refuses to rinse his pumpkin juice bottle out, because it still smells good! The rides were awesome, and we were very lucky with our choice of days. The longest line we waited in was for Ollivander's Wand Shop - where one lucky person is chosen to receive a wand - unfortunately, it wasn't any of us! (The boys are still very bitter towards some kid named Peter!) We waited about 45 minutes for that one, and about 40 minutes for The Forbidden Journey (kind of like Indiana Jones at D-Land, but Harry Potter style - and WAYYYYYYYYYY better!!!). All the roller coasters were basically walk-on. Gotta love that! We also spent a large portion of our day just walking through all the stores in Hogsmeade (for all the HP fans - we went to Dervish & Banges, Zonkos, Honeydukes, The Hog's Head, Three Broomsticks, and Ollivander's). We tried Fizzing Whizbees at Honeydukes, but I was disappointed they didn't have licorice wands!!! The boys got chocolate frogs, however! We tried on all of our house robes. Austin is the only Gryffindor in the family. Blake, Cade and I are all Ravenclaws. We are pretty sure Brian is a Hufflepuff - but we haven't been able to talk him into getting sorted on Pottermore yet. Hahaha...for all the HP fans, that should give you a chuckle. Austin was disappointed because he wanted to buy a Griffindor tie (the one thing he can take on his mission with him), but they were "one size fits some" - and were not the normal tie length, so he just bought his Griffindor house cardigan (a big purchase for my frugal son - as it is a very nice Scottish wool sweater!). He's hoping to take it with him on his mission if he gets called to Europe or somewhere cold. So, if you happen to find a tie that could pass for Griffindor, let us know - we are on the look-out!
We spent about 85% of our day at HP World - we just didn't want to leave. It's located inside of Universal Islands of Adventure (kind of like how D-Land is split into Adventure Land, Fantasy Land, etc.). The only thing that was worthwhile outside of HP World, was the Incredible Hulk roller coaster (it rivaled anything at Six Flags!). Spiderman was pretty cool too.
All-in-all, we had a FANTASTIC day. Blake said it was the "best day of his life". I guess that makes it worth any cost!!! We are going to spend our last day of "vacation" before school starts tomorrow, trying to make butterbeer, and watch one or two of our favorite HP movies! Great way to spend the last day of summer. :)
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| Hogwarts! |
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| Hogwarts Express! Platform 9 3/4 |
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| The Three Broomsticks |
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| Butterbeer! Frothy, creamy GREATNESS!!! |
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| Heaven forbid we stop drinking to take a pic! |
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| Blake, the ham! Always willing to pose for a shot - especially with his beloved butterbeer! |
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| Typical Cade...but he did love the butterbeer! |
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| Cheers! This one is for Aunt Tracy, Laurie & Sarah! |
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| Another shot of the castle - and the bewitched snowman that never melts. |
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| Beauxbatons & Durmstrang! |
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| Buckbeak! Hagrid's hut is in the back. :) |
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| The Sorting Hat |
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| Another view of the castle |
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| Grabbed a few of these with the iphone. Don't judge. There was NO place to take a decent shot, but he was just so cute! We are going to have our house robes made for us by a friend - we didn't want to pay $100/ea. & they weren't made as well as my friend can do it - for probably less than half the cost! |
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| Above the crowd. Had to get a shot of the Butterbeer sign! |
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| View from up above! Shot it from the top of the roller coaster (Chinese Firebolt). :) |
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| The Lorax! |
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| Pretty much had to beg them to do this one for me. |
