The concierge at the hotel gave Jacob the number of a shuttle service that we scheduled to get us from the hotel to Universal and back. You will get dirty looks when you leave Disney property when you’re staying at one of their hotels. Consider yourself warned. The shuttle service was much cheaper than we’d hoped for and dropped us off as close to the park as it could. It’s a 10 minute hike to get into the park past the security checks, outside shops and ticket area. At least they had moving walkways for part of it.
So first we waited in lines to have our bags checked to get into the area of Universal Studios. Then we waited in line to buy our tickets. Then we waited in line to get into the park. THEN we waited in line to get into (drumroll please) The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (hereafter: Harry Potter World or HPW)!!I think we waited in that last line almost 90 minutes. It was INSANE. The masses of humanity they were packing into that small area HAD to be against some code. But it was SO COMPLETELY COOL!!
The first thing we hit in HPW was Hogwarts, which was also home to Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, which was one of the coolest rides any of us have ever been on. The whole top floor is set up to be the line for the ride, but you walk through the Gryffindor common room, the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, and Dumbledore’s office. Since Nicole and I were hanging out with the kids at first, we found out they have a separate walkway for those who just want to tour the castle without waiting in line for the ride. Jacob and Alex also found out that (at least right after the park opens) they don’t police the junction points between that walkway and the actual ride line very well. Let’s just say those two rode the ride 3 times in a row in very, very little time. :-)
We ate lunch at The Three Broomsticks and had butterbeer. Holy cow - that’s good stuff. The food was pretty good - better than most anything we’d had in Florida at that point. The inside of the restaurant looked just like the movie - it was really fun. Even the bathroom was cool - it was regular modern bathroom, but occasionally Moaning Myrtle will start talking to you. I only heard her voice, though there was a rumor that she occasionally appeared in some of the mirrors. Once we figured out that the other HUGE lines outside were to get in the shops, we sucked it up and started waiting in those lines.
Nicole stayed with the kids while the rest of us went through Honeyduke’s and Zonko’s Joke Shop and then Jacob stayed with them while the rest of us went into Dervish and Bang’s. The first two were candy and joke stuff (I know - shocking) and then the last store was the souvenir store. I loaded up on Bertie Bott’s Beans and even got a Chocolate Frog. Alex bought a sweet looking wand, which I'm pretty jealous of. We hung out around HPW for a while longer because we weren’t sure we’d be allowed in once we left. After we’d decided we’d waited in enough lines, we took a few more pictures by the Hogwarts Express and headed out. The only other part of Universal we had any real interest in visiting was Suess Land. Nicole and I are both big Suess fans and Hazel’s on her way to becoming one as well. Her favorite ride was the carousel (not a surprise) and the One Fish, Two Fish ride (which is basically a Dumbo-redo). She had a lot of fun on both I think. We looked around in some of the stores and then I finally went and asked but they don’t carry any Sneetches merchandise anymore. I was very sad. By the time we were done in Suess Land, we still had about an hour until our return shuttle, so we just walked around and looked at different parts of the park and shopped at some of the out of the park shops. Jacob and I both finally got new sunglasses.
After we got back to the hotel and spent some time recovering, I managed to somehow convince everyone that it would be a good idea to go to Magic Kingdom that night to see the parade and fireworks show. And I’m sure it would have been a fantastic idea except that everyone else seemed to have the exact same idea. If we hadn’t seen such outrageous crowds at HPW that morning, I’m sure I would have been shocked by the crowds the parade and fireworks show drew. I will admit that I had a very bad attitude once we got to the park that lasted until partway through the parade. It was hot and crowded and Hazel was really unhappy which was making it harder for me to be happy. The parade was fun and would have been more fun if I could have relaxed about everyone shoving me from every side.
We repositioned ourselves for the fireworks show so we were right in front of the castle. The picture to the right shows our view. I think the videos are too big and too long to post on here but WOW - that was amazing. Probably the best fireworks show I’ve ever seen. They actually shot some fireworks off from the castle itself to make it look like it was being blown up - very cool. We decided to wait out the crowd before trying to get on the bus back to the hotel, mostly because the babies needed to eat. It ended up being a good idea because our bus back was not that crowded. We even caught the first little bit of the second go of the parade on our way out. It was a very long day, but probably my favorite of the whole week.
A few notes on HPW: It was so, so cool, especially for someone who likes to nerd-rage about Harry Potter. Like me, for example. I do have a couple of complaints though. (1) Probably the least baby-friendly place we visited. And Disneyworld is not the most baby-friendly theme/amusement park I've been too. (2) It should have been MUCH, MUCH bigger. In my opinion, it should have been it's own theme park, instead of one section of Universal. (3) I wish they would have had more. What was there was completely awesome. But it would have been nice to see more of Hogwarts castle or more of Hogsmeade. I think they could've made a fortune if Hogwarts had been a hotel and you could've actually stayed a night in Hogwarts.
The differences between how things at HPW were handled and how things at Disneyworld were handled is rather striking. Disneyworld has line traffic control down to a science, as well they should. Things were a bit messier at HPW, as shown by the "shortcut" the boys found when going on Forbidden Journey.
OH! Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey was SO cool! I'm not the biggest rollercoaster fan. And when Jacob starts off with "I won't tell you anything about it but you HAVE to go on this ride" - I get very nervous. It was really, really awesome. You very much feel a part of the movies. However, the ride did break while I was on it, so that kinda slowed down the experience a bit for me. But it was still really cool. It was actually the car Jacob was on that broke the ride that time, so he ended up going on it 5 times I think. Lucky.
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