The Last one out of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

What does my blog need.  More Harry Potter and/or theme park posts!  Of course!

So after an evening asking "students" in Hogwarts Castle everything about the attraction, from rider capacity (2000 per hour), ride vehicles (40) and riding it 11 times in one day I ended up being the last one out of Hogsmeade.

 I love being in a park alone.  It's just like being back at work in Disneyland.

 The park closed at 6 that evening as dusk was falling.  The photos came out beautifully.

 Honeydukes with no students.  It's so quiet!

Look Ma no tourists!

Until next time.  Sometimes it happens sooner than one thinks.  And hopefully it does!

Wizarding World Butterbeer Mug

Now what to do with your new souvenir from The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  Of course I can drink out of it but that is not really that fun.  Ok, it's kinda fun.  But I had a better idea.

It looks like Butterbeer is in there all the time.

What about using mine for a bookend.  Or a pen holder.  Or maybe just a fun thing to have around.

This is one of the easiest projects I've done of late.  But I also feel like it is one of my cleverest projects too.

All it takes are some vase fillers.  Some amber and opaque white.  Fill a little more than 3/4 with the amber stones and top it off with the white.  Wa la!  You have your own permanent Butterbeer!

Now don't get too tispy wizards, muggles or squibs!

The Attractions of the Wizarding World

Yes this does warrant it's own post.  

Lets start with the smallest attraction in the area.  The Flight of the Hippogriff is a nice little roller coaster for everyone.  My mom with her terrible motion sickness could probably go on this one.  Like everything in the area the theming is excellent.  Looks like Hagrid is in charge of everything here.  You walk by his house with very large pumpkins, and scarecrows to end up in his cabin.  Which just happens to have a roller coaster inside.

As you climb higher on the roller coaster look to the left and you will see Buckbeak sitting in his nest.  The best thing about this attraction are the views that you get of the area while you are riding.  Where else can you see the rooftops of Hogsmeade.

The other traditional roller coaster in this area is Dragon Challenge.  Again the themeing is fantastic.  Dargon Challenge is themed after the Goblet of Fire. When you first enter after dropping off you bags at the Train station you pass next to banners for the four champions.  The que climbs towards the challenge area which again gives you great views of the castle and the town.

  Outside Don't miss the Ford Anglia and Hagrids cabin before entering the training tent.  The egg clues are all there, along with the Goblet itself and a candle lit ceiling.

One of my favorite details about the area are the warning signs.  They are Ministry approved.
Anyways, once you get to the challege you must choose your opponent.  Would you choose the Hungarian Horntail or Chinese Fireball?  Either way its a good roller coaster.

Now the the piece de resistance.  Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is unlike any other ride I've ever been on.  It is the best attraction out there.  You start at the base of the castle, put your bag in the lockers, and off you go on an adventure before the adventure.

The first entrance into the castle leads you by the potions class room, the Mirror of Erised, and back outside into the greenhouse.  I can only imagine how long this wait would be if the entire place was full.

Then back inside the castle you go.  There is so much to see.  The hourglasses with the house points, Dumbledore's staircase, his gadgets, and the man himself in his office

 Then off to why you are really there.  Harry, Ron and Hermione have worked out, mostly by Hermione's work, how to sneak muggles onto the grounds.  Board an enchanted bench and hopefully it turns out alright. Once you leave the defense of the dark arts classroom you pass the Fat Lady, the Hogwarts founders talking about Hermione and her flying bench, and the sorting hat before boarding.

I don't think I can really give justice to this attraction by describing it since the experience is like no other.  It's just amazing.  I had to go 11 times in one day, I love it that much!  

I just wish there was a Disneyland and a Wizarding World in Kansas City.  One can dream. Or move...

Back to the Wizarding World!

Welcome to Hogsmeade!   I was so excited to be back!  I love this place.  I'm very excited when it comes to the coast that I visit more often all my dreams will come true.  Or when they build a Disneyland in Kansas City, then all all my dreams came true!

This time I came armed with both of my cameras ready to shoot.  Looking at my photos now I still wish I would have taken more photos.  It had only been 2 weeks since my trip to Europe and I was still suffering from photo fatigue.  

Into Hogsmeade I went to have my Muggle adventures.  What's not to love as you enter Hogsmeade to be greeted by the Hogwarts express.  And a butterbeer cart!  

As you walk into the land further you pass by Zonkos, Honeydukes, and Three Broomsticks.  The detail in the windows are so well done.  I just wish that all the store fronts I could walk inside.

One place you can walk inside is the Three Broomsticks.  I ate here twice during my visit.  

One of my favorite details about this restaurant are the drink choices.  Pear cider, apple cider, pumpkin juice, pumpkin fizz, and lemonde are your choices.  Of course Butterbeer too!  No coke here, or anywhere in the land!  So cool!  

Situated right next door is Hogs Head Pub.  I indulged here with a hard cider.  I spent many an hour sitting on this patio writing letters while enjoying pear, apple, hard cider and the occasional butterbeer.   

I love finding a quiet area to sit and relax in the middle of a busy theme park.

Now back into Hogsmeade.  If  you look close enough you can find Gilderoy Lockheart's books in a window display.  So many details all around it never ceases to amaze me!

You never know what you are going to see around the area.  Wizard's chess, no feeding winged creatures, flying snitches and Moaning Murtle in the bathroom.  What will I stumble upon next.

Cats made from measuring tape, floating dresses, measuring tape that seems to work on its own, and instruments that play themselves.  It's magic.

 At the other end of the alley is Hogwarts castle.  I wish I could go there for real.

And view looking back into the Hogs Head patio and the Castle.  What's not to love about an area that outdid Disney.

And a picture of me with the Triwizard school participants for good measure!

Book wreath

I found this beautiful wreath online and thought it looked pretty cool.  I found some tutorials and off I went creating one of my own.

I took a used copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  The entire book.  It always hurts me to defile a book but it was worth it for the end result.  Plus it was a homeless book at a library book sale.  It will just be enjoyed in a different way.

I bought a medium sized Styrofoam wreath and went to work with paper, hot glue and staples.

I started in the middle of wreath.  On all layers but the first I only used hot glue.  Once I got to the layer that would sit on the wall I added a staple for some extra substance.

Once I made it to a flat back I flipped it over and started working again.  As I went along I used different folding patterns for various pages.  Some in cones, S shapes, and hearts.

Once I got to the inside on of the wreath I again secured the inside most layer with staples.  I had a couple extra sheets of paper in the end which I placed in any place where ever I could see the white from the foam wreath.  

 And it's complete!  Not to shabby for about a $5 project.

Another project complete.  I just need to make a second one for my mom.  Another day and another craft project to add to my list.

Now off to something new Universal Studios Florida

When I visited Universal Studios Theme parks in Feburary 2012 I only had the chance to go to Islands of Adventure.  So this time I bought a three day pass to both parks.

The first day I went to the parks with my best Disney friend Rachel.  She and I conquered both parks in one day on a Sunday.  Like my last visit Sunday treated me very well.  Outside Rachel's bad luck with parking   the parks on Sunday are great.  

 My first real day in Orlando.  Ahh to be back so soon in the hot humid Florida air.  Well this day wasn't too bad.  We started our day not super early but early enough by heading down the road to Universal.  I told Rachel to get an annual pass for the parks since she was going to be visiting at least twice during the year, plus free parking!  We got the parking that we always do, at the end of the row, the furthest away from the entrance.  We walked the long distance to Universal Studios park and found that we had gotten there 10 minutes before the gates opened.  I guess I am too efficient in getting ready in the morning.  After our usual changing conversation the gates opened and off we went.

 Entering Universal Studios is a bit of a walk from the parking garage, through Universal City Walk, next the water way and finally to the entrance.  A wonderful entrance into a fun park.  

All around the entrance, and the entire park, were Halloween decorations for the Horror Nights.  They were cool looking and unobtrusive.  We passed the entrance store and went straight into the Despicable Me attraction.  It's a very simple and heartfelt motion simulator ride.  It had opened since I came in February so it was new to me.  But so was everything in the Universal Studios park since I had not visited there ever before.

We hit everything in the park.  

Shrek 4D Adventure.  I went on this many years ago in Hollywood and it is the same.  Set after the first Shrek film it is what happens after the movie ends.

Twister a movie effects show that made me keep exclaiming how young Bill Paxton was.

 The Revenge of the Mummy is a great indoor rollercoaster with a couple hot and cold surprises and a que plot that doesn't make sense unless  you are stuck in line for while. 

Disaster with Christopher Walken as a movie studio head who needs help casting extras for his new disaster pic.  Great for big groups of people when someone from their group gets selected.  Plus the actor who was Walken's assistant who selected people from our group was fantastic!  I couldn't stop talking about how awesome he was!
Men in Black is like steping back in time to the 1964 World's Fair.  But instead of going into a fair pavilion you are chosen by the MIB to train for service.  It's very similar to Buzz Lightyear but you can hit opponents vehicles and make them spin.  Or sometimes you just spin when no one is shooting at you.  

The Simpsons is in the building that formerly held the Back the Future Ride.  The vehicles were clearly Delorians in their past life but now they are cars that fly you into the world of the Simpsons.  Overall I was not impressed by the ride, mostly because it was done in computer animation rather than hand drawn.  The characters just didn't look right.

ET is a very strange ride.  You go onto a bicycle contraption that holds about 20 people and fly through the story of ET and more.  You end on ET's planet with creatures that seem like they would be comfortable in Labryth.  Don't need to do that one again.

And finally Terminator 2 3-D.  It's a very entertaining show with acting, action, 3-D film and motorcycles all combined.  

We finished all that (minus Shrek) by about 1pm after spending about 4 hours in the park.

I came back my following two days and revisited most of the park, took pictures with some characters and watching some shows.  

The Blues Brother's Show was good but I really hoped that they would come in with their car.  But alas they did not.

I was always impressed by themeing all around.  My favorite find was the cookies for Despicable Me.  Even you can buy coco nutties.

At the end of the day the lagoon in the center of the park fills with a 100th Anniversary Show.  The show is a combination of fountains, film, and fireworks.  There is a water screen in the middle of the lake that sometimes creates patterns with the water.  In the blue and red shots below the starburst and film reel were created by falling water.  Very cool.

 Again I was sad to report that I did not take enough photos.  I didn't get photos of anything on the back half the the park. We were too busy having fun and spending too much time in the Wizarding World.

Next time...

I will be coming back in 2 years or so when Diagon Alley opens.  What's not to love about more Harry Potter!

I'm back at the Islands of Adventure, Florida

This trip actually happened in September.  Wow, that was a while ago.  But I wanted to go through all of my travels from 2012 in the order that they actually happened.  So here we are in March recapping September. I'll get back to the actual date sooner or later!

The first day I was there was with Rachel.  After starting at Universal Studios park we ventured over to Islands of Adventure.  I had visited the park with my mom in February but only had a day.  This time I had a 3 day park hopper so I got on everything.
After entering the park the first land to the right is Seuss Landing.  All of the rides inside are geared towards children more than adults.   The Cat in the Hat is a classic dark ride with the addition of whiplash.  One Fish Two Fish is Dumbo with the threat of getting wet.  The strangest ride is the Seuss Trolley Train.  It looks like fun but the soundtrack is very disconnected from the themeing of the ride.  Should be fun but it really isn't.

Off to the next land of the Lost Continent.  No rides in this land but two shows.  Poseidon’s Fury is a special effects show that was good fun.  The first three scenes were great but the final one seems a bit dated.  The other attraction is Sinbad's stunt show.  Entertaining to see once, don't really need to see it again.

Ahhh Harry Potter, the real reason to visit.  I'll spend a couple more posts on this land so I'll pass for now.

It was a pretty nice day so Rachel and I hit all the water rides in one day.  We started with the one that we thought we would get the most wet on.  That totally didn't happen.  We got soaked more and more on each ride we went on.  Jurassic Park was the first.  We barely got wet.  I went again on another day and only got hit by one water droplet.

The other ride in Jurassic Park is one that you must be a child or be riding with a child so that one was a no go for us.  Pteranodon Flyers is for kids, but what about kids at heart!?

Toon Lagoon is aptly named.  It is home to the other two water rides.  Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls is a log flume ride where it looks like you would get completely soaked.  We got moderately soaked.  I just wish I could remember more from the cartoons that I watched as a kid.
The other ride in the area is Popeye & Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges.  This was the last one we hit and it hit us with tons of water.  Wow we were soaked.  Now I know why Universal has people dryers.

We followed the circle around to Marvel Super Hero Island.  Now owned by Disney but featured in Universal.  Rachel and I went on everything in the area.  Spiderman is a fantastic 3-D motion simulator ride.  You take on a job at the Daily Beagle and run into Spiderman along the way with villains there to thwart him.  I've been told it's similar to Transformers in Universal Hollywood which is also being built in Orlando.  Very cool ride.

Dr. Doom is a detonator/maliboomer style ride which the only difference that you load underground.  The Hulk is a great roller coaster with a surprise start, and Storm Force Accelatron are the fastest tea cups known to man kind.  

I just happened to be there on another day when all of the meet and greet Super Heroes came out on motorcycles.  Of course I met all of them.  With the exception of Spiderman who I ran across at the top of a merchandise display in the entry shop.

I suspect that over the years the park will get even better.  Jurassic Park will have a smaller footprint in the future, Marvel will leave the park, Toon Lagoon gets news comics and rethemed rides?  Who knows what will happen next.

All and all I really enjoyed my adventures in Islands of Adventure.  Of course Harry Potter is the biggest draw but there is a lot to do in the parks.