The Insanity that Was :: Part V

FINALLY--the post that all you fellow Harry Potter nerds have been long awaiting! Here is your peek into

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

(cue theme music...)

When we got to Universal Orlando, we had to go the long way around to get to HP World due to crowd control--and yes, we waited in a giant line for an hour and a half just to ENTER that part of the park. Turns out that everyone else in the whole park wanted to be there, too. (You know, as though it had just opened two weeks earlier, or something... Sheesh.) Luckily, there was plenty to look at along the way!

Once we finally got into the park, we were greeted by the Hogwarts Express!

For those who are wondering, it did expel plenty of steam! 

Welcome to Hogsmeade.

Honeydukes was right next door to Zonko's Joke Shop, and was absolutely fabulous. Chocolate frogs, Berty Bott's Every Flavor Beans... My favorite part was the homemade fudge, though. Yeah, I know. So un-wizardly of me. But hey--you indulge in some of their chocolate cheesecake fudge and I think you'll understand! :) This tornado is made of cotton candy!

We drank Butterbeer...

Kind of like extra foamy cream soda with butterscotch syrup mixed in. Very rich. Very sweet.

And Pumpkin Juice...

Sort of like chilled wassail... Yum.

I love this shot of my mom...

They had a frog choir. Or rather, an a capella group with frogs singing bass. :) Check it out!

Of course, we went to Ollivander's. We had heard that you got to be "picked" by a wand. How cool is that? 

Ok. Turns out it wasn't that cool. Totally not worth the hour and a half we waiting in the mid afternoon sun. Even if we did get to see a real live Quidditch set!

There was a snitch flitting around in there, too, but you can't see it in the video, sorry! I tried--that's why at the end the camera is a bit wonky!

Turns out only one person in a group of 30-40 got to actually get "picked." And it was some little kid. Weird. Can you believe they picked a KID for that!? ;) Glad we did it, even though it was lame. It would have been worse to wonder. The inside of the shop was really cool though--there were boxes and boxes of wands all the way up to the ceiling and in every nook and cranny!

We ate lunch at the Three Broomsticks.

I had my first Shepherd's Pie!

Here's an inside view...

Sort of... Of the cool rafters, at least!

Emily was SOOO good. I had to sneak into the Hog's Head (the pub adjoining the Three Broomsticks. Ironic, really) to feed her multiple times throughout the day, but the staff was so kind about it and it was so nice and COOL in there! :)

Eventually we decided to brave the line for the ride inside of Hogwarts Castle.

(Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey)

The line wound through the entire castle, so we got to see a ton of cool stuff! Emily was particularly excited to enter...

A dragon skeleton in the room where we got snowed on! So cool.

The statue in front of the entrance to Dumbledore's office.

The pensieve...

And Dumbledore's office!

If you look close you can actually see Dumbledore up on the balcony (he's a projection, so it's a little hard to see...)

The line also meandered through the Greenhouse, where we saw Mandrakes...

Back in the castle again...

And the House Points...

There were portraits all over the walls that moved and talked to each other. We got to see the Fat Lady. In fact, there was a problem with the ride just as we reached the Fat Lady, so we got to converse with her over. and over. again. :)

This ride was pretty cool. It was a combination of us moving through the actual castle, and part movie thing where we were right up in front of a screen and moving so it felt like we were flying on a broomstick and stuff. Now that was an eloquent sentence! :) We got chased by dragons, attacked by the basilisk, you name it. We did it. 

And a couple more pictures. Cause I know you hadn't seen enough already. :)

I've been trying to be more on top of getting pictures of me and Kirby together. And me in general. I'm usually behind the camera--I'll have a month's worth of pictures and only have one or two with me in them. So I took the opportunity during the eternally long line to get into the park to snap a quick picture of me and Kirby!

My mom and dad found a nice little ledge to sit on.

The Monster Book of Monsters!

Playing with Daddy...

Emily loves her Grandpa Blackham!

Phew! I finally did it. And so did you. Congratulations. :)